Woodline Partners LP Trims Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Woodline Partners LP lessened its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 300,301 shares of the company's stock after selling 11,960 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP owned approximately 0.10% of Ball worth $16,556,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 82.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 25,027 shares of the company's stock worth $1,380,000 after purchasing an additional 11,282 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company's stock valued at $556,000 after buying an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,468 shares of the company's stock valued at $687,000 after buying an additional 1,618 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 21,353 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,177,000 after buying an additional 511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd increased its holdings in Ball by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 124,313 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,853,000 after buying an additional 847 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $61.00.

Ball Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $53.71 on Thursday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $50.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.81. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $43.51 and a 52-week high of $70.28. The firm has a market cap of $14.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

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

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.49%. Ball's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.62%.

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.

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