Amundi lifted its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 30.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,302,923 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 301,246 shares during the period. Amundi owned approximately 0.44% of Ball worth $69,742,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Naviter Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth about $237,000. AMG National Trust Bank lifted its holdings in Ball by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 1,388,227 shares of the company's stock valued at $76,339,000 after purchasing an additional 162,105 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its holdings in Ball by 382.6% during the fourth quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 76,274 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,205,000 after purchasing an additional 60,468 shares in the last quarter. Callan Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth approximately $298,000. Finally, Inceptionr LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $1,229,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.
BALL has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays decreased 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. UBS Group dropped their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $64.64.
Read Our Latest Report on BALL
Shares of NYSE:BALL traded down $1.02 on Wednesday, hitting $51.30. 2,070,377 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,931,890. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $48.95 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $52.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.04.
Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company's quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball's dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.
Ball announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.
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.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Ball wasn't on the list.
While Ball currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.