RWA Wealth Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

RWA Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $362,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its position in shares of Ball by 80.4% during the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Friedenthal Financial bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America raised shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.58.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $65.45 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $20.66 billion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.79. 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 one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $67.97.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Ball’s payout ratio is 35.71%.

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

Ball Company 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.