WESCAP Management Group Inc. Sells 507 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

WESCAP Management Group Inc. cut its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 19,640 shares of the company’s stock after selling 507 shares during the quarter. WESCAP Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,334,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BALL. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. Mirova US LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,780,000 after purchasing an additional 13,320 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,951,000 after buying an additional 171,924 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Ball by 6.1% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after buying an additional 99,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Ball by 458.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,139,000 after buying an additional 836,293 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Down 5.7 %

Shares of BALL opened at $57.56 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $54.06 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $63.15 and its 200-day moving average is $63.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.18 billion, a PE ratio of 4.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.91.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released 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 firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho reduced their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.75.

Ball 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.