Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Gradient Investments LLC

Gradient Investments LLC decreased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 7.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 272,713 shares of the company's stock after selling 20,472 shares during the quarter. Gradient Investments LLC owned 0.09% of Ball worth $18,370,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,569 shares of the company's stock valued at $577,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the period. Cigna Investments Inc. New bought a new position in shares of Ball during the first quarter valued at approximately $218,000. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 54,953 shares of the company's stock worth $3,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,380,051 shares of the company's stock worth $92,960,000 after purchasing an additional 127,966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Veracity Capital LLC boosted its position in Ball by 5.6% during the 1st quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 3,739 shares of the company's stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:BALL traded up $0.60 on Friday, hitting $68.59. 2,208,429 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,072,126. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $65.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $58.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The company has a market cap of $21.65 billion, a PE ratio of 5.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.38 and a beta of 0.87. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.17%. Ball's dividend payout ratio is 6.02%.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on BALL shares. UBS Group began coverage on Ball in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a "sell" rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America raised Ball from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $69.15.

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.

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