Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Acquired by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,481 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 532 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after acquiring an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $190,105,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $94,861,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL stock opened at $51.45 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.06, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.88. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BALL shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.30.

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.