Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 6.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 113,203 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,170 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $7,688,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Ball by 4.3% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 27,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,840,000 after buying an additional 1,114 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 0.5% in the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 34,206 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,304,000 after purchasing an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 3.5% in the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 6,132 shares of the company’s stock valued at $413,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Veracity Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.6% in the first quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 3,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the first quarter valued at about $208,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Baird R W raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $71.08.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $64.19 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $19.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.88. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $46.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $65.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.09.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.04%.

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.