State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Reduces Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 110,349 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,624 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Ball were worth $6,084,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 338.4% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 4,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,000 after purchasing an additional 3,428 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 4,139 shares of the company’s stock valued at $228,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% in 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. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 3,599.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,494,000 after purchasing an additional 308,744 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 17,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $933,000 after purchasing an additional 1,559 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays lowered 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 note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.25.

Ball Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE BALL opened at $49.90 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.00. Ball Co. has a one year low of $49.00 and a one year high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a price-to-earnings 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.