Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Buys 89,400 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 16.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 639,590 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 89,400 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned approximately 0.21% of Ball worth $35,261,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Picton Mahoney Asset Management boosted its holdings in Ball by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 328.4% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $76,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 298.9% during the fourth quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company's stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 1,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Ball by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Evermay Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company's stock valued at $96,000 after purchasing an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $60.80.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded up $2.08 on Thursday, hitting $50.58. The stock had a trading volume of 2,292,319 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,127,507. The stock has a market cap of $14.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $43.51 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The business's 50 day moving average is $50.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $55.50.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Ball's payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.