Corient Private Wealth LLC Cuts Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Corient Private Wealth LLC reduced its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 35.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 57,076 shares of the company’s stock after selling 30,873 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $3,147,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ball by 23.6% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 267,459 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,745,000 after purchasing an additional 51,121 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd increased its stake in Ball by 183.3% in the 4th quarter. Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 3,300 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management increased its stake in Ball by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 712,962 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,306,000 after purchasing an additional 21,069 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LBP AM SA increased its stake in Ball by 124.4% in the 4th quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 587,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,367,000 after purchasing an additional 325,497 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.30.

Ball Price Performance

BALL stock opened at $50.69 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $48.95 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball 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.