Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Has $8.71 Million Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lowered its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 158,006 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,568 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Ball worth $8,711,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $66,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 29.1% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $76,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Up 1.2 %

Ball stock opened at $49.90 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $54.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $60.34. The company has a market capitalization of $14.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $49.00 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.54 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Company 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.