Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Increases Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm 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 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Ball by 55.7% during the third quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 8,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 2,978 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 28,910 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,963,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 25.6% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 89,984 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,111,000 after purchasing an additional 18,327 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 12,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $836,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BALL shares. Citigroup reduced their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $63.30.

Ball Trading Down 1.2 %

BALL opened at $51.45 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $52.18 and its 200-day moving average is $57.88. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $48.95 and a 52-week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. Analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

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

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.