Amalgamated Bank Sells 4,600 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Amalgamated Bank lowered its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,782 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,600 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Ball were worth $4,359,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Ball by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,408,000 after purchasing an additional 72,585 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,248,000 after buying an additional 115,133 shares during the last quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 3.1% in the third quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,126,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,662,000 after acquiring an additional 95,415 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Ball by 9.3% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,764,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,620,000 after acquiring an additional 234,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 1.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,577,015 shares of the company’s stock worth $128,284,000 after acquiring an additional 37,492 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Ball in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.23.

Ball Stock Up 1.0 %

BALL stock opened at $69.89 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $66.08 and a 200 day moving average of $59.31. The firm has a market cap of $22.06 billion, a PE ratio of 5.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.87. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.