Bailard Inc. Boosts Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Bailard Inc. increased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,426 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 335 shares during the period. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,923,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 1.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company’s stock valued at $291,408,000 after buying an additional 72,585 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Ball by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,248,000 after buying an additional 115,133 shares during the last quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Ball by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,126,992 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,662,000 after buying an additional 95,415 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ball by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,764,571 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,620,000 after buying an additional 234,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,577,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,284,000 after buying an additional 37,492 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BALL. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. TheStreet raised Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 price objective (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America raised Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL traded up $3.39 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $68.84. 1,134,884 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,818,758. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.78. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $69.77. The company has a market cap of $21.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.71%.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.