Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank lowered its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 944,288 shares of the company’s stock after selling 40,900 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Ball were worth $63,607,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Jag Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ball by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 25,562 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,470,000 after buying an additional 169 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its position in Ball by 0.5% in the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 34,206 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,304,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares during the period. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 0.7% during the first quarter. SYSTM Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 26,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,783,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ball by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 182 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust boosted its position in shares of Ball by 0.9% in the first quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 22,581 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,521,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

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

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded up $0.30 during trading on Friday, hitting $60.80. 2,455,497 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,296,502. The stock has a market cap of $18.87 billion, a PE ratio of 4.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $65.67 and its 200 day moving average is $63.46. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21.

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

Ball declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.02%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on BALL shares. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Ball from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.23.

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.