Huntington National Bank Cuts Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Huntington National Bank reduced its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 95,714 shares of the company’s stock after selling 9,465 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Ball were worth $5,277,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $108,000. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 7,897.6% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 140,358 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,738,000 after buying an additional 138,603 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,732,000 after buying an additional 803,728 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.1% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 187,272 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,324,000 after acquiring an additional 24,582 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Ball by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 757,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,742,000 after acquiring an additional 5,374 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ball Trading Down 0.1 %

BALL stock opened at $52.34 on Thursday. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $48.95 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $52.05 and its 200 day moving average is $57.65. The company has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a PE ratio of 4.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. 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 (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.30.

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.