Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Holdings Trimmed by Sawgrass Asset Management LLC

Sawgrass Asset Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 6.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,122 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,252 shares during the period. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $999,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at about $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at about $66,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 29.1% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at about $76,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barclays dropped 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 report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective 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. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group raised shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.50.

Ball Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $49.59 on Thursday. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $49.03 and a 12 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. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.66. The firm has a market cap of $14.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.92, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

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.