Lyell Wealth Management LP Has $2.15 Million Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Lyell Wealth Management LP lowered its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,390 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,680 shares during the period. Lyell Wealth Management LP’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,151,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,252,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,020,000 after purchasing an additional 143,005 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in Ball by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,469,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,149,000 after acquiring an additional 282,114 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Ball by 82.8% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 309,970 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,430,000 after acquiring an additional 140,440 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in Ball by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 389,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,384,000 after acquiring an additional 16,632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Ball by 25.3% during the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 85,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,245,000 after acquiring an additional 17,215 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Ball Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of BALL traded up $0.31 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $65.50. 1,370,370 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,817,990. Ball Co. has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $67.97. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $20.67 billion, a PE ratio of 29.10, a PEG ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $64.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.73.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.56 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

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

Ball declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase 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 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.