1,720,688 Shares in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Acquired by Raymond James Financial Inc.

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,720,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $94,861,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.58% of Ball as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BALL. FMR LLC lifted its position in Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. First Merchants Corp lifted its position in Ball by 1,335.8% during the fourth quarter. First Merchants Corp now owns 619,205 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,137,000 after buying an additional 576,078 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Ball by 4.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Ball by 3,599.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 317,321 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,494,000 after buying an additional 308,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in Ball by 402.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,014,000 after buying an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on BALL. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.64.

Ball Stock Up 4.2 %

BALL stock opened at $54.35 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $48.95 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $52.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $59.20. The firm has a market cap of $15.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.29, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.