Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 20,412 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 501,108 shares of the company’s stock after selling 20,412 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned approximately 0.17% of Ball worth $27,626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Ball by 458.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,139,000 after purchasing an additional 836,293 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its stake in Ball by 402.1% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after buying an additional 212,430 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ball by 400.4% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,048,000 after acquiring an additional 130,175 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.17.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $55.01 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.44. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $51.96 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $16.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball 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.