Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Purchases 6,975 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 124,450 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,975 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Ball were worth $7,158,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew its stake in shares of Ball by 80.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 40.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 1,053 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, 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 SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded down $0.21 on Friday, reaching $66.01. The stock had a trading volume of 1,320,262 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,689,751. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $20.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The business’s 50 day moving average is $67.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. The firm 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.23.

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.