Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Cuts Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund reduced its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,619 shares of the company’s stock after selling 370 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,412,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Ball by 4.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 15.4% in 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. M&G PLC grew its holdings in Ball by 5.2% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,729,000 after purchasing an additional 38,714 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in Ball by 14.1% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,030,000 after purchasing an additional 87,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.4% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,020,000 after buying an additional 2,762 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $52.71 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.61. The company has a market cap of $14.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BALL. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average 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.