Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Sky Investment Group LLC

Sky Investment Group LLC reduced its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 41.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,250 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,915 shares during the quarter. Sky Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $560,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after buying an additional 267,479 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its position in Ball by 114.1% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,162,167 shares in the last quarter. Mirova US LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 0.5% in the second quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $149,780,000 after acquiring an additional 13,320 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Ball by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after purchasing an additional 171,924 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Ball by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,864,000 after purchasing an additional 99,306 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.08.

Ball Trading Down 1.4 %

BALL stock traded down $0.93 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $65.26. The stock had a trading volume of 141,981 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,797,851. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $65.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market cap of $20.26 billion, a PE ratio of 4.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.88. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $42.81 and a 12-month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. Ball’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

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.