Hager Investment Management Services LLC Invests $76,000 in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,377 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $76,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Ball in the second quarter worth $234,000. Creative Planning boosted its stake in Ball by 8.2% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 19,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,149,000 after buying an additional 1,459 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ball during the second quarter valued at $1,453,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in Ball by 143.6% during the third quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $670,000 after buying an additional 5,819 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its stake in Ball by 4.6% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 61,839 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,199,000 after buying an additional 2,693 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial dropped 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. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $67.17.

Ball Stock Down 1.4 %

BALL opened at $51.12 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $15.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $56.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $50.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

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.