Securian Asset Management Inc. Sells 838 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Securian Asset Management Inc. cut its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,951 shares of the company’s stock after selling 838 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $879,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BALL. GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 6.8% in the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 9,519 shares of the company’s stock valued at $646,000 after acquiring an additional 608 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 0.4% in the third 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 last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Ball by 402.1% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,014,000 after purchasing an additional 212,430 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 5.0% in the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 14,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,012,000 after purchasing an additional 712 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV purchased a new position in Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,757,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays dropped their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price 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, Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 target price (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.64.

Ball Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $51.91 on Friday. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $48.95 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a PE ratio of 4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s fifty day moving average is $52.64 and its 200 day moving average is $58.81.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.