Ostrum Asset Management Sells 1,596 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Ostrum Asset Management reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 29,521 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,596 shares during the period. Ostrum Asset Management’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,627,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Picton Mahoney Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ball by 328.4% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Hager Investment Management Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $76,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Ball by 298.9% in the 4th quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 1,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Ball by 35.1% during the 4th quarter. Evermay Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 453 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays cut their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reissued 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.30.

Ball Stock Up 0.8 %

Ball stock opened at $47.43 on Monday. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $13.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $50.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.73. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.