Short Interest in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Drops By 8.0%

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,570,000 shares, a drop of 8.0% from the January 15th total of 7,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,340,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Currently, 2.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on BALL. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Barclays dropped their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL traded up $0.57 during trading on Monday, reaching $49.90. The stock had a trading volume of 2,816,069 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,689,496. Ball has a 1-year low of $49.00 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a PE ratio of 3.94, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.00. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $54.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.34.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.32%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at $94,861,000. London Co. of Virginia grew its stake in shares of Ball by 61.1% in the fourth quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,389,000 after buying an additional 1,158,668 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $229,310,000 after buying an additional 840,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,732,000 after buying an additional 803,728 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% 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.