Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC

Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC cut its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 4.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 13,644 shares of the company’s stock after selling 623 shares during the period. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $752,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 4.5% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 1.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 7.6% during the third quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,033 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 2.0% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 10,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $745,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.17.

Ball Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $54.32 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. Ball Co. has a one year low of $51.96 and a one year high of $71.32. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.53. The stock has a market cap of $16.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.