Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Howe & Rusling Inc.

Howe & Rusling Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,069 shares of the company’s stock after selling 178 shares during the quarter. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Ball were worth $276,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $1,906,000 after purchasing an additional 23,941 shares during the period. Addenda Capital Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 153,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,211,000 after buying an additional 10,427 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Ball in the 1st quarter worth $12,292,000. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ball by 12.3% in the 2nd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $543,000 after buying an additional 990 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Ball by 9.7% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 538,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,293,000 after buying an additional 47,539 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

BALL opened at $60.42 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $64.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.45. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $52.92 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The firm has a market cap of $18.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BALL. Baird R W raised Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of 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, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.75.

Ball Company 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.