Mather Group LLC. Purchases New Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $170,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Friedenthal Financial bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ball by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 182 shares in the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 40.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 1,053 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 301 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Salem Investment Counselors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $57,000. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. TheStreet raised shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.85.

Ball Stock Down 2.9 %

Ball stock opened at $60.43 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.12.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.69 EPS. Ball’s revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other Ball news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $688,095.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.