Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) SVP Mandy Glew Acquires 563 Shares

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) SVP Mandy Glew acquired 563 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $68.15 per share, for a total transaction of $38,368.45. Following the completion of the purchase, the senior vice president now directly owns 3,563 shares in the company, valued at $242,818.45. This trade represents a 18.77 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Ball Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of BALL stock traded up $0.90 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $56.23. 3,694,418 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,395,896. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $51.96 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $16.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $56.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.33.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on BALL shares. Mizuho raised shares of 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. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group raised shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup lowered their price objective 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. 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 research note on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.17.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 1,335.8% during the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,137,000 after purchasing an additional 576,078 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Ball by 4.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after acquiring an additional 309,587 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Ball by 3,599.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,494,000 after acquiring an additional 308,744 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Ball by 402.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after acquiring an additional 212,430 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.