HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Invests $274,000 in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter worth $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the period. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball in the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 2,341.5% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 1,001 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 960 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. TheStreet upgraded Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.85.

Ball Stock Up 0.4 %

BALL stock opened at $60.65 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The company has a market cap of $18.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $67.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.12.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.69 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. 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 payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In related news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of Ball 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at approximately $688,095.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.