Avanza Fonder AB Lowers Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Avanza Fonder AB lowered its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 31.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,277 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,266 shares during the period. Avanza Fonder AB’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Picton Mahoney Asset Management lifted its position in shares of Ball by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Ball by 6.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 26,729 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,474,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the period. Crumly & Associates Inc. boosted its position in Ball by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 9,050 shares of the company’s stock valued at $499,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Toth Financial Advisory Corp boosted its position in Ball by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 53,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,778,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BALL shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.00.

Ball Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:BALL opened at $54.93 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.34, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $43.51 and a 12 month high of $68.85. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.05.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.46%. Ball’s payout ratio is 47.62%.

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.