Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Stake Increased by Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc.

Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 6.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 8,210 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the period. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho increased their price objective on Ball to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America upgraded Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, April 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.58.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL stock traded up $4.35 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $69.80. The company had a trading volume of 4,554,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,601,210. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $70.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.16, a PEG ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $65.12 and its 200 day moving average is $57.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.79.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.71%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate 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.