Xponance Inc. Has $2.46 Million Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Xponance Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 42,808 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,888 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,462,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. JGP Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,896 shares of the company’s stock worth $914,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Wealthsource Partners LLC lifted its stake in Ball by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wealthsource Partners LLC now owns 4,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $238,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its stake in Ball by 12.8% in the 3rd quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 2,203 shares of the company’s stock valued at $110,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its stake in Ball by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 5,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $294,000 after purchasing an additional 254 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its stake in Ball by 80.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.58.

Ball Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of BALL opened at $65.43 on Tuesday. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $67.97. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $64.72 and its 200-day moving average is $57.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.65 billion, a PE ratio of 29.21, a P/E/G ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced 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 company had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued 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 1.22%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.71%.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.