Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Stock Holdings Lifted by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 10.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,577 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 546 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $307,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ball during the third quarter valued at about $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the third quarter worth about $66,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ball by 29.1% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $76,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ball Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $50.45 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $53.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.05 billion, a PE ratio of 3.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.94.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 6.32%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

Ball Company Profile

Ball Corporation supplies aluminum packaging products for the beverage, personal care, and household products industries in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. The company manufactures and sells aluminum beverage containers to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.