Howe & Rusling Inc. Lowers Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Howe & Rusling Inc. lessened its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 95.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,143 shares of the company’s stock after selling 119,995 shares during the quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $353,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BALL. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in Ball by 146.6% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,470,641 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,730,000 after purchasing an additional 874,325 shares in the last quarter. Mirova US LLC raised its stake in Ball by 49.2% during the fourth quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,527,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,406,000 after purchasing an additional 833,494 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new stake in Ball during the third quarter valued at $17,791,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Ball by 23.8% during the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,469,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,149,000 after purchasing an additional 282,114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its stake in Ball by 394.0% during the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 313,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,591,000 after purchasing an additional 249,800 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $71.00 target price (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. One investment 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 data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.15.

Ball Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $68.22 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $65.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.55. The stock has a market cap of $21.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.13, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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 declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, 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 available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.