Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Victory Capital Management Inc.

Victory Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 17.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 86,888 shares of the company’s stock after selling 18,222 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $4,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake 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. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Ball by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in Ball by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,030,000 after purchasing an additional 87,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ball by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,020,000 after acquiring an additional 2,762 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. 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 note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $64.64.

Ball Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $51.91 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $52.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.81. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. 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 $14.66 billion, a PE ratio of 4.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 6.32%.

Ball 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.