Howe & Rusling Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Howe & Rusling Inc. reduced its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 95.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,143 shares of the company's stock after selling 119,995 shares during the quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc.'s holdings in Ball were worth $353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in Ball by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 30,407 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,514,000 after purchasing an additional 3,206 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in Ball by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 44,696 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,763 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Ball by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,109,080 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,210,000 after purchasing an additional 24,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eudaimonia Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 19.6% during the 3rd quarter. Eudaimonia Partners LLC now owns 10,846 shares of the company's stock valued at $540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,780 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $67.98. The company had a trading volume of 2,116,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,912,465. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $65.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.55. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $21.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.12, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 0.87.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Ball's payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $68.00 price objective for the company. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday. Bank of America upgraded Ball from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a "peer perform" rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $69.15.

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.