Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by USS Investment Management Ltd

USS Investment Management Ltd reduced its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 49.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 54,326 shares of the company's stock after selling 53,028 shares during the quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd's holdings in Ball were worth $2,995,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% in the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,707,000 after buying an additional 47,874 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company's stock valued at $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 63.4% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 523,765 shares of the company's stock valued at $28,875,000 after buying an additional 203,298 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in 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 last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Barclays reduced their price objective on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $61.00.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL traded up $1.62 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $53.38. The company had a trading volume of 2,922,641 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,191,474. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $43.51 and a twelve month high of $70.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.81 billion, a PE ratio of 4.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $50.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $53.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.91 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. Ball's payout ratio is currently 47.62%.

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