BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Raises Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 60.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,295 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 22,650 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Ball were worth $3,619,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners increased its position in Ball by 114.1% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after purchasing an additional 2,162,167 shares during the period. Putnam Investments LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 39.5% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,645,909 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Ball in the first quarter worth $50,193,000. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Ball by 11,074.9% in the fourth quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. now owns 558,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,152,000 after acquiring an additional 553,967 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ball by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after purchasing an additional 267,479 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Baird R W raised Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.83.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $67.47 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.21. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $20.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.61 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

About Ball

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.