Boston Trust Walden Corp Sells 5,530 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Boston Trust Walden Corp lowered its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 217,240 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,530 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp’s holdings in Ball were worth $14,753,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after purchasing an additional 267,479 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Ball by 114.1% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,162,167 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,780,000 after acquiring an additional 13,320 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after purchasing an additional 171,924 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Ball by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after purchasing an additional 99,306 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $64.03 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $19.87 billion, a PE ratio of 4.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.88. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $45.49 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $65.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $65.14.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The business’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.61 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on BALL shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.08.

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.