Independence Bank of Kentucky Purchases Shares of 700 Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $47,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,211,527,000 after acquiring an additional 998,527 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,408,000 after acquiring an additional 72,585 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 39.5% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,645,909 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth $168,372,000. Finally, Mirova US LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,527,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,406,000 after acquiring an additional 833,494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.54.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded down $1.06 on Friday, reaching $60.02. The stock had a trading volume of 4,820,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,388,935. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $18.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The business’s 50 day moving average is $67.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.26.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball 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.