Arizona State Retirement System Reduces Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Arizona State Retirement System lessened its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 88,157 shares of the company’s stock after selling 766 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Ball were worth $4,860,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,253,000 after purchasing an additional 36,809 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 707,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,030,000 after purchasing an additional 87,577 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 692,380 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,020,000 after purchasing an additional 2,762 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays decreased their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.64.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $54.35 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.37 billion, a PE ratio of 4.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $52.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.23. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $48.95 and a 12 month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.78 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors 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 1.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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.