Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires New Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 740 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Eukles Asset Management increased its holdings in Ball by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Eukles Asset Management now owns 64,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,716,000 after acquiring an additional 352 shares in the last quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Colton Groome Financial Advisors LLC now owns 11,040 shares of the company’s stock valued at $635,000 after acquiring an additional 2,055 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its holdings in Ball by 71.8% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,055 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 28,902 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,662,000 after acquiring an additional 2,934 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirova US LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 49.2% during the fourth quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,527,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,406,000 after buying an additional 833,494 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $64.95 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $20.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.18 and a beta of 0.89. 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $67.97. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $64.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.41.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for 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 revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 35.71%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, April 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.58.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.