Welch & Forbes LLC Reduces Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Welch & Forbes LLC lessened its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 12.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 360,387 shares of the company's stock after selling 50,689 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC owned about 0.11% of Ball worth $20,729,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 146.6% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,470,641 shares of the company's stock worth $71,730,000 after purchasing an additional 874,325 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC raised its stake in Ball by 49.2% during the 4th quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,527,925 shares of the company's stock worth $145,406,000 after acquiring an additional 833,494 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new stake in Ball during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $17,791,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Ball by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,469,446 shares of the company's stock worth $73,149,000 after acquiring an additional 282,114 shares during the period. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its stake in Ball by 394.0% during the 3rd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 313,197 shares of the company's stock worth $15,591,000 after acquiring an additional 249,800 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BALL. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a "peer perform" rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a "sell" rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $68.00 target price for the company. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ball from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $69.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired 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 owns 111,866 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ball Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL traded up $0.31 on Monday, hitting $68.90. 1,926,728 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,916,060. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.87. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $65.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.16%. Ball's dividend payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors 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 buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.

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