Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 6.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,210 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 480 shares during the quarter. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 target price (up from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ball Trading Up 6.6 %

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

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.69 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.71%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Profile

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.