First Merchants Corp Raises Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

First Merchants Corp grew its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1,335.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 619,205 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 576,078 shares during the quarter. Ball comprises 1.3% of First Merchants Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Ball were worth $34,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake in Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after acquiring an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Ball by 3,599.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,494,000 after purchasing an additional 308,744 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Ball by 402.1% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,014,000 after purchasing an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 400.4% in the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,048,000 after purchasing an additional 130,175 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $49.32 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $49.00 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company’s fifty day moving average is $54.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.66.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

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.