Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Asset Management One Co. Ltd.

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 116,642 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,061 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Ball were worth $6,512,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.5% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 10,969 shares of the company’s stock valued at $745,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 9.7% in the third quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 2,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $49.90 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $54.19 and a 200-day moving average of $60.23. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $49.00 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

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

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

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.