Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lessened its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,185 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,160 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,564,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 31.0% during the 4th quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its stake in Ball by 40.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 1,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 301 shares during the period. Finally, Salem Investment Counselors Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ball

In related news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total transaction of $349,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. TheStreet raised Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.85.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL stock opened at $60.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21. The stock has a market cap of $18.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.17. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

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

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.