Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp reduced its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 44,360 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,079 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. 9258 Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $210,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 93,669 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,387,000 after buying an additional 24,470 shares during the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ball by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 50,448 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,902,000 after buying an additional 311 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 29.2% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 189,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,908,000 after buying an additional 42,864 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 7,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $432,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BALL. Bank of America raised shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. UBS Group assumed coverage on Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Finally, TheStreet upgraded Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.23.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL stock opened at $69.89 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $66.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $59.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.26, a PEG ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.69 EPS. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

Ball announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are 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.