Cwm LLC Has $19.15 Million Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Cwm LLC trimmed its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 332,918 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,906 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $19,149,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Ball by 66.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,830,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $817,294,000 after acquiring an additional 5,903,021 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Ball by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,979,673 shares of the company’s stock worth $408,081,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200,145 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,700,954 shares of the company’s stock worth $368,473,000 after acquiring an additional 37,672 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Ball by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,408,000 after acquiring an additional 72,585 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Ball by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,248,000 after acquiring an additional 115,133 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $64.95 on Monday. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $67.97. The stock has a market cap of $20.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.00, a PEG ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.41.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “sell” rating and a $55.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

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.