Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Holdings Lifted by Quantbot Technologies LP

Quantbot Technologies LP grew its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 113.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 55,422 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,495 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Ball were worth $3,055,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Ball by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 5,031 shares of the company’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $845,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in Ball by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 155,243 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,543,000 after purchasing an additional 2,680 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.5% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $50.69 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.00, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $48.95 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $52.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.40.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.30.

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.