Brown Financial Advisors Increases Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Brown Financial Advisors increased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,706 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the quarter. Brown Financial Advisors’ holdings in Ball were worth $425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp grew its holdings in Ball by 1,335.8% during the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 3,599.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,494,000 after purchasing an additional 308,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Ball by 402.1% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after purchasing an additional 212,430 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $50.78 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $53.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $59.88. The stock has a market cap of $14.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

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.