Neo Ivy Capital Management Invests $1.14 Million in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 20,592 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,135,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter worth about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% during the 4th quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company's stock worth $2,707,000 after acquiring an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ball by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company's stock valued at $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Aviva PLC boosted its stake in Ball by 63.4% in the 4th quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 523,765 shares of the company's stock valued at $28,875,000 after purchasing an additional 203,298 shares during the period. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 99.5% during the fourth quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company's stock worth $2,053,000 after purchasing an additional 18,809 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded up $0.36 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $53.21. The company had a trading volume of 564,157 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,187,474. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Ball Co. has a one year low of $43.51 and a one year high of $70.07. The firm has a market cap of $14.76 billion, a PE ratio of 4.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $50.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.55.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

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

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. UBS Group dropped their price target on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $61.00.

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.