Eukles Asset Management Grows Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Eukles Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 64,612 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 352 shares during the quarter. Ball accounts for 1.8% of Eukles Asset Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Eukles Asset Management’s holdings in Ball were worth $3,716,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in Ball by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,252,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,020,000 after acquiring an additional 143,005 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in shares of Ball by 23.8% during the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,469,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,149,000 after acquiring an additional 282,114 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball by 82.8% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 309,970 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,430,000 after acquiring an additional 140,440 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Ball by 4.5% during the third quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 389,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,384,000 after acquiring an additional 16,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ball by 25.3% during the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 85,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,245,000 after acquiring an additional 17,215 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 price target (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.58.

Ball Trading Up 0.7 %

BALL stock traded up $0.47 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $64.82. 628,487 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,817,592. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $67.97. The company has a market cap of $20.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.00, a P/E/G ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $64.51 and its 200-day moving average is $57.19.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The firm’s revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.71%.

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.