Clearbridge Investments LLC Has $42.70 Million Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Clearbridge Investments LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 633,867 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,087 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned 0.20% of Ball worth $42,697,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Ball by 0.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after acquiring an additional 267,479 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its position in Ball by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after purchasing an additional 998,527 shares during the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC increased its stake in Ball by 39.5% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,645,909 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $168,372,000. Finally, Mirova US LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 49.2% in the fourth quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,527,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,406,000 after purchasing an additional 833,494 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. 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 report on Monday, April 29th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Ball from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Truist Financial upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $67.00 to $76.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.08.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock traded up $1.40 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $62.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,298,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,960,271. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.72. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market cap of $19.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.72, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.85.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.69 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

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

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.