Wealth Alliance Sells 455 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Wealth Alliance decreased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 9.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,572 shares of the company’s stock after selling 455 shares during the period. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in Ball were worth $263,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Ball by 66.1% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,830,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $817,294,000 after acquiring an additional 5,903,021 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Ball by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,979,673 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,081,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200,145 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,700,954 shares of the company’s stock valued at $368,473,000 after acquiring an additional 37,672 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Ball by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company’s stock valued at $291,408,000 after acquiring an additional 72,585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in Ball by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,248,000 after acquiring an additional 115,133 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $64.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $64.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.19. Ball Co. has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $67.97. The firm has a market cap of $20.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.10 and a beta of 0.89.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.71%.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup initiated coverage on Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price objective on the stock. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.