Blair William & Co. IL Lowers Stock Holdings in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL)

Blair William & Co. IL reduced its position in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) by 36.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 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 reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. Argent Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 34.3% in the 1st quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 7,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $384,000 after purchasing an additional 1,883 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 8.3% in the 1st quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 73,783 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,842,000 after purchasing an additional 5,626 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 152,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,949,000 after purchasing an additional 694 shares during the last quarter. Commerce Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 24,361 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,268,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 34.1% in the 1st quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,987 shares of the company’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 1,521 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.27.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $53.49 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.72, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.15. Ball Corporation has a twelve month low of $43.51 and a twelve month high of $68.12.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 16.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

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

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.