Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Has $1.66 Million Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 11.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 28,902 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,934 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,662,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirova US LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 49.2% in the fourth quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,527,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,406,000 after buying an additional 833,494 shares in the last quarter. Latitude Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $207,000. Lipe & Dalton raised its stake in shares of Ball by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Lipe & Dalton now owns 50,408 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,899,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. Donaldson Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $448,000. Finally, Crumly & Associates Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ball by 19.2% during the fourth quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 8,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $500,000 after buying an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Up 0.7 %

BALL opened at $65.43 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $64.72 and a 200 day moving average of $57.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $67.97. The company has a market cap of $20.65 billion, a PE ratio of 29.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.89.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.71%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Citigroup began coverage on Ball in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. TheStreet raised Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.