1,720,688 Shares in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Purchased by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,720,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $94,861,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 raised its holdings in Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,253,000 after buying an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in Ball by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,030,000 after buying an additional 87,577 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,020,000 after buying an additional 2,762 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays dropped their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup dropped 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. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $64.64.

Ball Trading Up 4.2 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $54.35 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $52.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.20. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $15.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The firm’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.47%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.