Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. Invests $568,000 in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 10,306 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $568,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $94,861,000. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ball by 25.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company's stock worth $229,310,000 after buying an additional 840,357 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Ball by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company's stock worth $427,732,000 after buying an additional 803,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Merchants Corp grew its position in Ball by 1,335.8% during the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company's stock worth $34,137,000 after buying an additional 576,078 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays lowered their price target on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Truist Financial dropped their target price 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. 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 report on Tuesday, April 15th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $60.80.

Ball Trading Up 2.1 %

Ball stock traded up $1.04 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $51.55. The stock had a trading volume of 464,682 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,110,056. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $50.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.56 billion, a PE ratio of 4.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $43.51 and a twelve month high of $71.32. 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 (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.78 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. Ball's payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

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