Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Purchased by Van ECK Associates Corp

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3,599.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 317,321 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 308,744 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 0.11% of Ball worth $17,494,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in Ball during the third quarter valued at about $156,000. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Ball by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,827 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,414,000 after purchasing an additional 1,679 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 29.6% in the 3rd quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,468 shares of the company’s stock worth $167,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 35.7% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,064 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Ball by 6.1% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after purchasing an additional 99,306 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.25.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $49.90 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $49.00 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly 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. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.