New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 322,694 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,148 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ball were worth $17,790,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. First Merchants Corp increased its stake in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% in the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Ball by 3,599.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,494,000 after acquiring an additional 308,744 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of Ball by 402.1% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after acquiring an additional 212,430 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $51.35 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $53.74 and a 200 day moving average of $59.99. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $48.95 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 last year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

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 dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BALL. Truist Financial cut their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

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.