Townsend & Associates Inc Decreases Stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Townsend & Associates Inc trimmed its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 19,775 shares of the company’s stock after selling 220 shares during the period. Townsend & Associates Inc’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,295,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.2% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,453,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,917,000 after purchasing an additional 58,863 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball by 306.6% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,906,000 after acquiring an additional 23,941 shares during the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. grew its position in shares of Ball by 7.3% during the second quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 153,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,211,000 after acquiring an additional 10,427 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in Ball by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 669,904 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,122,000 after purchasing an additional 36,749 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its position in Ball by 436.8% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 18,010 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,213,000 after purchasing an additional 14,655 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 research analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.75.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $60.25 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $48.05 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

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.