Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) is LRT Capital Management LLC's 8th Largest Position

LRT Capital Management LLC cut its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 23.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,919 shares of the company's stock after selling 12,698 shares during the period. Ball comprises approximately 2.3% of LRT Capital Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. LRT Capital Management LLC's holdings in Ball were worth $2,411,000 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. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 446.3% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 448 shares of the company's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 366 shares during the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Covington Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators grew its stake in shares of Ball by 80.4% in the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at $29,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Ball to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.58.

Insider Activity at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded up $0.60 during trading on Friday, reaching $64.95. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,513,650 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,570,192. The business's 50-day moving average price is $64.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.41. The firm has a market cap of $20.50 billion, a PE ratio of 29.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.18 and a beta of 0.89. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $67.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.56 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. Ball's quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.71%.

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.