Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. Decreases Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. decreased its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 22.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,634 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,847 shares during the quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $752,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter worth $774,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $94,861,000. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 531,933.3% during the 4th quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 47,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in 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 last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC raised its position in Ball by 99.5% in the 4th quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 37,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,053,000 after purchasing an additional 18,809 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on BALL. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays reduced 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. Robert W. Baird lowered 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. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $63.30.

Ball Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE BALL opened at $50.79 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.25. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $14.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. 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 (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.