First Merchants Corp Has $34.14 Million Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

First Merchants Corp grew its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 1,335.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 619,205 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 576,078 shares during the period. Ball makes up 1.3% of First Merchants Corp's portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. First Merchants Corp owned about 0.21% of Ball worth $34,137,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth $774,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 400.4% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company's stock worth $11,048,000 after acquiring an additional 130,175 shares in the last quarter. Estate Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $1,825,000. Hemenway Trust Co LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 46.3% during the third quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC now owns 275,083 shares of the company's stock worth $18,681,000 after acquiring an additional 87,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% during the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company's stock worth $2,707,000 after acquiring an additional 47,874 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective 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 cut their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays cut their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group cut 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $65.25.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded up $0.05 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $49.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,685,515 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,749,963. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.00. The business's fifty day moving average price is $54.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.23. The firm has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a one year low of $49.00 and a one year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. 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 previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication 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. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball 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.