Janus Henderson Group PLC Has $44.55 Million Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 14.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 808,162 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 100,883 shares during the quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC owned about 0.27% of Ball worth $44,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth approximately $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter worth $94,861,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Ball by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company's stock valued at $229,310,000 after acquiring an additional 840,357 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ball by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company's stock valued at $427,732,000 after acquiring an additional 803,728 shares during the period. Finally, First Merchants Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on BALL. Loop Capital dropped 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group cut their price target 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. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $61.40.

Ball Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of BALL opened at $52.80 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $70.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.17, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $50.30 and a 200-day moving average of $54.10.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.91 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.68 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Ball's payout ratio is currently 47.62%.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's leadership 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.

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