Burney Co. Grows Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Burney Co. lifted its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,596 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 502 shares during the period. Burney Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,465,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in Ball by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new stake in Ball in the first quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ball by 2,341.5% in the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at $688,095.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday. Barclays lifted 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. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.23.

Ball Price Performance

BALL traded up $0.22 on Friday, hitting $64.76. 2,380,943 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,638,834. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.18. The business’s fifty day moving average is $63.55 and its 200 day moving average is $63.99. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

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.