Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 22,818 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 6.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 342,038 shares of the company’s stock after selling 22,818 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.11% of Ball worth $18,857,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 5.2% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,729,000 after acquiring an additional 38,714 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 14.1% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,030,000 after acquiring an additional 87,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its position in Ball by 0.4% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,020,000 after purchasing an additional 2,762 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ball Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $50.78 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $59.88. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.15 billion, a PE ratio of 4.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly 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. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase 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 usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on BALL. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.25.

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.