Rafferty Asset Management LLC Grows Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 10.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,928 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,497 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,429,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% in the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after buying an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Aviva PLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 63.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 523,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,875,000 after buying an additional 203,298 shares during the period. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 99.5% in the fourth quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,053,000 after buying an additional 18,809 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Ball stock opened at $54.32 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock has a market cap of $15.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.29, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $43.51 and a fifty-two week high of $70.43.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.91 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on BALL. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Loop Capital cut their target price on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.00.

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.