Hartford Investment Management Co. Has $1.02 Million Stock Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Hartford Investment Management Co. lowered its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 18,412 shares of the company’s stock after selling 705 shares during the quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,015,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ball during the third quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $66,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in Ball by 29.1% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hager Investment Management Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $76,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 1.2 %

Ball stock opened at $49.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $54.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.58. 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $49.00 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BALL. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.25.

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.