Xponance Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Xponance Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,576 shares of the company’s stock after selling 799 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,623,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth $980,000. RD Lewis Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in Ball in the fourth quarter worth about $277,000. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 46,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,581,000 after purchasing an additional 2,120 shares during the period. Cibc World Markets Corp increased its position in shares of Ball by 289.1% during the 4th quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 161,908 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,926,000 after purchasing an additional 120,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 23.6% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 267,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,745,000 after purchasing an additional 51,121 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on BALL shares. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.64.

Ball Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of BALL opened at $50.69 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.43.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.