Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Blair William & Co. IL

Blair William & Co. IL decreased its holdings in shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 36.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,495 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,622 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Ball were worth $234,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BALL. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 41.2% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 5,245 shares of the company’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 1,531 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Ball by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 17,538 shares of the company’s stock valued at $967,000 after purchasing an additional 5,847 shares during the period. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $568,000. Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its position in Ball by 25.4% in the fourth quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 10,089 shares of the company’s stock valued at $556,000 after purchasing an additional 2,041 shares during the period. Finally, Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $627,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 18th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Ball from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Loop Capital dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $66.00 target price (down from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.27.

Ball Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of BALL opened at $53.49 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.15. Ball Corporation has a 1-year low of $43.51 and a 1-year high of $68.12. The stock has a market cap of $14.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.08.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 16.81%. The company’s revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 41.45%.

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.