Bank of New York Mellon Corp Has $112.30 Million Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,037,074 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 4,122 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.68% of Ball worth $112,304,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brown Financial Advisors boosted its position in Ball by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Brown Financial Advisors now owns 7,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $425,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of Ball by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 458,416 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,272,000 after purchasing an additional 10,663 shares during the period. Dover Advisors LLC bought a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter worth $472,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in Ball by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 37,881 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,088,000 after acquiring an additional 3,818 shares during the period. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter worth $1,339,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on BALL. 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. Barclays cut their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $52.71 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.91 billion, a PE ratio of 4.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $53.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.61. 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

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.