Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 751,082 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,218 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned 0.24% of Ball worth $43,202,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Crumly & Associates Inc. grew 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 worth $500,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth about $1,099,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Ball by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $286,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth about $288,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $64.95 on Friday. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $67.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a 50-day moving average of $64.63 and a 200-day moving average of $57.30. The firm has a market cap of $20.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.44 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.71%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 price target (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. One investment 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.