Clearbridge Investments LLC Sells 2,087 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Clearbridge Investments LLC decreased its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 0.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 633,867 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,087 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $42,697,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter worth $43,000. NBC Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 769 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the first quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Salem Investment Counselors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $57,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total transaction of $349,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded up $1.40 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $62.71. The company had a trading volume of 2,298,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,960,271. The firm has a market cap of $19.46 billion, a PE ratio of 4.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.85. Ball Co. has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.72.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho upped their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.08.

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.