Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Purchases Shares of 11,200 Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund purchased a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 11,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $617,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in 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 during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in 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. M&G PLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,729,000 after purchasing an additional 38,714 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,030,000 after purchasing an additional 87,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,020,000 after purchasing an additional 2,762 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BALL shares. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Performance

Ball stock opened at $51.95 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $14.69 billion, a PE ratio of 4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s 50-day moving average is $53.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.75.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.