MetLife Investment Management LLC Lowers Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

MetLife Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 78,990 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,811 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $5,364,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in Ball by 458.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,139,000 after purchasing an additional 836,293 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd grew its position in shares of Ball by 1,875.2% in the 2nd quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 275,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,520,000 after buying an additional 261,303 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Ball by 17.5% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,621,553 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,326,000 after acquiring an additional 241,502 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Ball by 402.1% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 265,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,014,000 after acquiring an additional 212,430 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho cut their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.75.

Ball Stock Down 0.7 %

BALL opened at $62.16 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.69, a PEG ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.90. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.09. Ball Co. has a twelve month low of $54.06 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend 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.