Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp Reduces Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp lowered its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 43.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,538 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,717 shares during the quarter. Obermeyer Wood Investment Counsel Lllp’s holdings in Ball were worth $204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Macquarie Group Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth about $533,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth approximately $1,319,000. First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth approximately $2,863,000. Pathstone Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth approximately $621,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth approximately $1,181,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

BALL stock traded up $0.52 during trading on Friday, hitting $64.87. The stock had a trading volume of 180,614 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,812,079. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $64.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.19. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $67.97. The stock has a market cap of $20.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.11 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.56 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The firm’s revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.44 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $71.00 price objective (up from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

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.