Assetmark Inc. Purchases 39,100 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Assetmark Inc. grew its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 106.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,932 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 39,100 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc.'s holdings in Ball were worth $4,186,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company's stock worth $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. First Merchants Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% in the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company's stock worth $34,137,000 after buying an additional 576,078 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 3,599.7% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company's stock worth $17,494,000 after buying an additional 308,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 402.1% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company's stock worth $18,014,000 after buying an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Ball Stock Up 4.2 %

NYSE BALL opened at $54.35 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $52.90 and a 200-day moving average of $59.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00.

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Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS 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 return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $64.64.

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.

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