14,040 Shares in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Acquired by Everence Capital Management Inc.

Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 14,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $774,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 14.7% during the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,000 after buying an additional 335 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 27.2% in the 2nd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 10,626 shares of the company’s stock worth $638,000 after purchasing an additional 2,270 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC raised its position in Ball by 2.3% in the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 14,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $874,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the second quarter valued at about $384,000. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ball during the second quarter worth about $308,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup raised their target price on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $54.03 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.07, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $53.85 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.83 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

About Ball

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.