Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Invests $325,000 in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. purchased a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 5,890 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $325,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in Ball by 4.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company's stock worth $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company's stock worth $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC boosted its stake in Ball by 5.2% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company's stock valued at $53,729,000 after acquiring an additional 38,714 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in Ball by 14.1% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company's stock worth $48,030,000 after purchasing an additional 87,577 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company's stock valued at $47,020,000 after purchasing an additional 2,762 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. UBS Group reduced their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $64.64.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL traded up $0.89 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $51.92. The stock had a trading volume of 2,418,101 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,921,176. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $53.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.43. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.10, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

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.