Securian Asset Management Inc. Has $879,000 Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Securian Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,951 shares of the company’s stock after selling 838 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $879,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 328.4% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $66,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at $76,000. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 298.9% in the 4th quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 1,070 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $51.91 on Friday. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $64.64.

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.