Bank of Stockton Has $302,000 Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Bank of Stockton lifted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 34.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,477 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,402 shares during the period. Bank of Stockton’s holdings in Ball were worth $302,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the third quarter worth $30,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 328.4% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ball during the third quarter worth $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in Ball during the third quarter worth $66,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 29.1% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BALL has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.25.

Ball Price Performance

BALL opened at $50.45 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.98, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $53.88 and a 200 day moving average of $60.09. 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 Co. has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership 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.