Van ECK Associates Corp Raises Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 3,599.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 317,321 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 308,744 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 0.11% of Ball worth $17,494,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $156,000. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Ball by 8.8% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,827 shares of the company's stock worth $1,414,000 after buying an additional 1,679 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 29.6% in the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,468 shares of the company's stock worth $167,000 after buying an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 35.7% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,064 shares of the company's stock worth $140,000 after buying an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Ball by 6.1% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company's stock worth $116,864,000 after buying an additional 99,306 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Ball Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL traded down $0.77 on Wednesday, reaching $49.09. 2,677,997 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,745,611. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $54.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.23. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 issued 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 1.63%. Ball's dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an "underweight" rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $65.25.

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.