Legal & General Group Plc Has $122.99 Million Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 25.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,230,919 shares of the company's stock after selling 764,188 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.75% of Ball worth $122,991,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Picton Mahoney Asset Management grew its position in Ball by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 328.4% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $76,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 298.9% during the 4th quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company's stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 35.1% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $62.30.

Ball Price Performance

BALL traded up $0.16 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $47.76. The stock had a trading volume of 198,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,702,668. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $50.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.21. 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 capitalization of $13.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $43.51 and a 1-year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during 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 was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.