Sei Investments Co. Has $25.39 Million Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Sei Investments Co. reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 460,567 shares of the company’s stock after selling 18,943 shares during the quarter. Sei Investments Co.’s holdings in Ball were worth $25,392,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management grew its holdings in Ball by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 26,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,474,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. raised its position in shares of Ball by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 9,050 shares of the company’s stock valued at $499,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the period. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BALL. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price 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 on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho raised 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.30.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $51.34 on Thursday. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $48.95 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $14.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $52.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $58.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its 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. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

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

Ball 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.