Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. Purchases 8,355 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 253,832 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 8,355 shares during the quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. owned approximately 0.09% of Ball worth $13,994,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Ball by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 364,856 shares of the company's stock valued at $24,777,000 after acquiring an additional 3,967 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC increased its position in Ball by 298.9% in the 4th quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company's stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 1,070 shares during the period. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Ball by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 64,705 shares of the company's stock worth $3,567,000 after buying an additional 2,866 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth $285,000. Finally, Asset Allocation & Management Company LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth $210,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.40.

Ball Stock Up 2.1%

NYSE:BALL traded up $1.10 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $53.23. The company had a trading volume of 3,246,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,132,258. 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 $14.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $50.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.18. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $43.51 and a twelve month high of $70.97.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.07. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.91 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.68 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.62%.

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.