Treasurer of the State of North Carolina Reduces Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 133,310 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,620 shares during the quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina’s holdings in Ball were worth $7,349,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter worth about $94,861,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Ball by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,310,000 after acquiring an additional 840,357 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,732,000 after acquiring an additional 803,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Merchants Corp boosted its position in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% during the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays decreased their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.20.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $48.12 on Monday. 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 $43.51 and a one year high of $71.32. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS 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 company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.