Principal Securities Inc. Purchases 633 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Principal Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 18.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,139 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 633 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $228,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Ball by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,827 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,414,000 after buying an additional 1,679 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ball by 35.7% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,000 after buying an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $222,000. Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 57.3% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,270 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 11,761 shares of the company’s stock worth $799,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 1.8 %

BALL opened at $51.35 on Monday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $53.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $59.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

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.