Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Position Raised by Ulysses Management LLC

Ulysses Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 15.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 575,000 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 75,000 shares during the quarter. Ball comprises about 5.1% of Ulysses Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest holding. Ulysses Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $31,700,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BALL. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth approximately $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% in the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after buying an additional 47,874 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 63.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 523,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,875,000 after buying an additional 203,298 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 99.5% in the fourth quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,053,000 after buying an additional 18,809 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.00.

Ball Stock Up 1.1%

BALL opened at $54.34 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $43.51 and a 1-year high of $70.73. The company has a market capitalization of $15.07 billion, a PE ratio of 4.29, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.80.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.91 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.68 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Ball’s payout ratio is 47.62%.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign 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.