Evergreen Private Wealth LLC Sells 413 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Evergreen Private Wealth LLC lowered its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 28.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,041 shares of the company’s stock after selling 413 shares during the period. Evergreen Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $57,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BALL. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $94,861,000. FMR LLC grew its position in Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. First Merchants Corp grew its position in Ball by 1,335.8% in the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,137,000 after acquiring an additional 576,078 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Ball by 4.7% in the third 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 last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Ball by 3,599.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,494,000 after acquiring an additional 308,744 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock opened at $52.16 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $52.93 and its 200 day moving average is $59.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market cap of $14.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. Ball Co. has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted 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 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report 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 report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.64.

Ball Company 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.