National Bank of Canada FI Purchases 138,603 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 7,897.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 140,358 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 138,603 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Ball were worth $7,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ball by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 26,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the period. Crumly & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 9,050 shares of the company’s stock worth $499,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its position in Ball by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 2,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 337 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on BALL. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $63.30.

Ball Stock Down 3.9 %

BALL opened at $48.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.83, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.41. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $48.51 and a twelve month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to buy up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

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

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.