Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Norris Perne & French LLP MI

Norris Perne & French LLP MI trimmed its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 279,134 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,831 shares during the quarter. Norris Perne & French LLP MI’s holdings in Ball were worth $15,389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the 2nd quarter valued at $234,000. Creative Planning increased its stake in Ball by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 19,148 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,459 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Ball by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 75,660 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,542,000 after buying an additional 5,745 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 598.6% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after buying an additional 856 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the second quarter worth approximately $3,857,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $56.23 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.24, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.33. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $51.96 and a twelve month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 target price (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.17.

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.