Cannell & Co. Reduces Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Cannell & Co. lessened its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 152,187 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,415 shares during the quarter. Cannell & Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $8,754,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 255 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new stake in Ball in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of BALL traded down $1.27 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $68.30. The company had a trading volume of 1,088,262 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,881,029. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market cap of $21.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.48.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its 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. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The company’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.69 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “sell” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.15.

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.