TD Private Client Wealth LLC Decreases Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

TD Private Client Wealth LLC reduced its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,734 shares of the company’s stock after selling 365 shares during the period. TD Private Client Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $254,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BALL. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its position in shares of Ball by 60.0% during the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 151,156 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,265,000 after purchasing an additional 56,692 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in Ball by 44.2% during the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 63,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,315,000 after purchasing an additional 19,481 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 8.1% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 93,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,339,000 after buying an additional 6,963 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $2,313,000. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC raised its position in shares of Ball by 24.5% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 20,190 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,371,000 after buying an additional 3,974 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 0.4 %

Ball stock opened at $58.24 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $62.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.35. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $54.06 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $17.38 billion, a PE ratio of 4.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.75.

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.