Valeo Financial Advisors LLC Has $390,000 Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Valeo Financial Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 44.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,082 shares of the company's stock after selling 5,724 shares during the period. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Ball were worth $390,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BALL. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in Ball during the third quarter worth about $156,000. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in Ball by 8.8% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,827 shares of the company's stock worth $1,414,000 after acquiring an additional 1,679 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Ball by 35.7% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,064 shares of the company's stock worth $140,000 after acquiring an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in Ball by 6.1% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company's stock worth $116,864,000 after acquiring an additional 99,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 9.7% during the third quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 2,501 shares of the company's stock worth $170,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays reduced 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. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Mizuho raised Ball from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $65.25.

Ball Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL traded up $0.90 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $51.35. The company had a trading volume of 3,493,153 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,785,969. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The business's 50 day moving average price is $53.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.01. The stock has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a PE ratio of 4.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.94. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $48.95 and a 1-year high of $71.32.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders 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 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.