National Bank of Canada FI Buys 138,603 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 7,897.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 140,358 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 138,603 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Ball were worth $7,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% in the 4th quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 47,874 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 18,809 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price 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. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 target price (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.30.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $48.54 on Friday. 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 stock has a market cap of $13.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.83, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.41. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $48.51 and a 52-week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company 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 revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball 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.