IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd Sells 7,135 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd reduced its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 12.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 50,444 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,135 shares during the quarter. IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,781,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Picton Mahoney Asset Management raised its stake in Ball by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Ball by 328.4% during the fourth 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 Ball in the third quarter valued at about $66,000. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the fourth quarter worth about $76,000. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 298.9% during the 4th quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.30.

Ball Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of BALL opened at $51.34 on Thursday. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market cap of $14.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.