Venturi Wealth Management LLC Has $37,000 Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 328.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 664 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $37,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% during the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,137,000 after purchasing an additional 576,078 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after acquiring an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Ball by 3,599.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,494,000 after acquiring an additional 308,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its position in shares of Ball by 402.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after acquiring an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 1.6 %

BALL opened at $51.58 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market cap of $14.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.07, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $48.95 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $53.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.80.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on BALL. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.