Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Decreases Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,100 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,000 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Ball were worth $888,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter worth $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in Ball during the third quarter valued at $66,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at about $76,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays lowered their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

Ball Stock Up 1.2 %

BALL stock opened at $49.90 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $49.00 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company’s 50 day moving average is $54.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.34. The stock has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.94, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. Research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

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

About Ball

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.