Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 54,132 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 9.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 498,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 54,132 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Ball were worth $27,480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hemenway Trust Co LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC now owns 284,221 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,669,000 after acquiring an additional 9,138 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth about $460,000. Aviva PLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 63.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 523,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,875,000 after purchasing an additional 203,298 shares during the last quarter. Dempze Nancy E increased its holdings in Ball by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Dempze Nancy E now owns 34,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,911,000 after purchasing an additional 2,610 shares during the period. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,388,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on 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 reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price 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. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.20.

Ball Stock Down 4.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $44.92 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.96. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $43.71 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.55, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management 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.