GAMMA Investing LLC Takes Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 2,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its position in Ball by 80.4% during the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter worth $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter worth $31,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $69.80 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $65.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.11. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $70.75. The company has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a PE ratio of 5.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The business’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.69 EPS. Analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.02%.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on BALL shares. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

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.