Forsta AP Fonden Has $8.46 Million Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Forsta AP Fonden reduced its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 153,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,400 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden owned about 0.05% of Ball worth $8,462,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Ball by 402.1% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,014,000 after purchasing an additional 212,430 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Ball by 400.4% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,048,000 after purchasing an additional 130,175 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 167.2% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 175,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,440,000 after purchasing an additional 110,053 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.17.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $56.23 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $56.77 and a 200-day moving average of $61.33. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $51.96 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.78 billion, a PE ratio of 4.24, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The company’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are 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.