Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 3,540.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 487,412 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 474,023 shares during the quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned 0.16% of Ball worth $26,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $94,861,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ball by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company's stock worth $229,310,000 after purchasing an additional 840,357 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company's stock worth $427,732,000 after purchasing an additional 803,728 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Merchants Corp raised its position in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% in the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company's stock worth $34,137,000 after purchasing an additional 576,078 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Mizuho cut their price target on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Loop Capital cut their price target on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $61.00.

Ball Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of NYSE BALL traded up $0.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $53.76. 1,800,658 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,146,062. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market cap of $14.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $43.51 and a 1 year high of $70.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $50.29 and a 200 day moving average of $53.88.

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

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company 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. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.