Mariner LLC Raises Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Mariner LLC boosted its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,198,281 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 31,001 shares during the quarter. Mariner LLC owned about 0.40% of Ball worth $66,059,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. MML Investors Services LLC grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 3,974 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.5% during 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 during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $510,000. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Ball by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 33,094 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,247,000 after buying an additional 1,182 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company's stock worth $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. 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 note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $62.30.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL traded up $0.36 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $47.43. 5,596,373 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,114,189. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market cap of $13.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.75, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $50.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.01. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $43.51 and a twelve month high of $71.32.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

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