M&G Plc Raises Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

M&G Plc boosted its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 751,423 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,280 shares during the quarter. M&G Plc’s holdings in Ball were worth $45,085,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Czech National Bank raised its position in shares of Ball by 6.6% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 59,146 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,550,000 after buying an additional 3,669 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Ball by 130.1% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 98,736 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,926,000 after acquiring an additional 55,827 shares during the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ball in the second quarter valued at $169,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 306.6% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,906,000 after acquiring an additional 23,941 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ball by 42.6% in the second quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 9,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $585,000 after acquiring an additional 2,910 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Barclays increased their target price on Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $78.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.08.

Ball Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE BALL traded up $0.53 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $62.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,243,134 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,929,201. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.18. The stock has a market cap of $19.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.40.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.02%.

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.