WESCAP Management Group Inc. Sells 665 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

WESCAP Management Group Inc. decreased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 20,147 shares of the company’s stock after selling 665 shares during the period. WESCAP Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,159,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its position in shares of Ball by 80.4% in the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 target price (up from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective for the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.15.

Ball Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE BALL traded up $0.60 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $68.59. The stock had a trading volume of 2,208,429 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,072,126. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $21.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.16, a PEG ratio of 4.41 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s 50 day moving average is $65.82 and its 200-day moving average is $58.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 31.42%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

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.