Heartland Advisors Inc. Boosts Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Heartland Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 287,167 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,805 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $15,832,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in 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 purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth $190,105,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Ball by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,253,000 after acquiring an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $94,861,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $52.11 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.07. The firm has a market cap of $14.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business posted $0.78 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the subject of a number of research reports. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.30.

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.