Nomura Holdings Inc. Takes $542,000 Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 9,828 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $542,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its stake in Ball by 19.9% in the 4th quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 13,139 shares of the company's stock valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 2,184 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in Ball by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 31,632 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,744,000 after purchasing an additional 776 shares in the last quarter. London Co. of Virginia lifted its holdings in Ball by 61.1% during the fourth quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company's stock valued at $168,389,000 after purchasing an additional 1,158,668 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball by 3,540.4% in the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 487,412 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,871,000 after purchasing an additional 474,023 shares during the period. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 808,162 shares of the company's stock worth $44,554,000 after purchasing an additional 100,883 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of NYSE BALL traded down $1.52 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $51.80. 3,813,551 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,188,538. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $50.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The company has a market capitalization of $14.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $43.51 and a 52-week high of $70.07.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.91 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. Ball's payout ratio is 47.62%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays cut their price target on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price target on Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $61.00.

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.