Hemenway Trust Co LLC Acquires Shares of 100,756 Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Hemenway Trust Co LLC purchased a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 100,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,787,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Ball by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 389,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,384,000 after acquiring an additional 16,632 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Ball by 5.1% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $341,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of Ball by 3.8% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 834,013 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,517,000 after acquiring an additional 30,859 shares during the period. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $390,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 20th. Truist Financial raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $67.00 to $76.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ball news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total transaction of $349,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ball Stock Up 2.0 %

BALL traded up $1.21 during trading on Thursday, reaching $60.50. 2,326,494 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,977,160. The stock has a market cap of $18.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.85. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $65.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $63.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. Ball’s revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.