FIL Ltd Sells 127,699 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

FIL Ltd lowered its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 43.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 167,696 shares of the company's stock after selling 127,699 shares during the period. FIL Ltd owned approximately 0.06% of Ball worth $9,245,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BALL. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 20,190 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,371,000 after acquiring an additional 3,974 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Ball by 8.1% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 93,339 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,339,000 after buying an additional 6,963 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp boosted its position in Ball by 44.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 63,538 shares of the company's stock worth $4,315,000 after acquiring an additional 19,481 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in Ball by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 151,156 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,265,000 after acquiring an additional 56,692 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 4.5% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,450 shares of the company's stock worth $642,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "underweight" rating and set a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $62.30.

Ball Stock Performance

Ball stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $47.40. The company had a trading volume of 1,062,486 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,094,949. 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 firm has a market cap of $13.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.75, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average of $50.39 and a 200-day moving average of $56.15. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week 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 for the quarter, topping 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%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Ball's payout ratio is 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board 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.