Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $6.65 Million Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 73.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 115,522 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 48,983 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Ball were worth $6,645,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 42,340 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,108,000 after purchasing an additional 4,066 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at about $444,000. Czech National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 47.9% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 55,065 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,741,000 after purchasing an additional 17,829 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 30,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,514,000 after purchasing an additional 3,206 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $71.00 price objective (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Ball to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $65.45 on Friday. 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 $64.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.78. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $67.97. The firm has a market cap of $20.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.71%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.