B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Has $459,000 Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG lowered its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 33.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,325 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,118 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Ball were worth $459,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter worth approximately $94,861,000. First Merchants Corp increased its stake in Ball by 1,335.8% during the 4th quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares during the period. LBP AM SA raised its holdings in Ball by 124.4% in the 4th quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 587,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,367,000 after acquiring an additional 325,497 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position 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 acquiring an additional 309,587 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on BALL. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group cut their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $63.30.

Ball Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $48.54 on Friday. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $48.51 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.