Natixis Advisors LLC Buys 25,048 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 13.1% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 216,338 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 25,048 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $14,692,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Partners increased its position in Ball by 114.1% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after purchasing an additional 2,162,167 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC grew its position in shares of Ball by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,780,000 after buying an additional 13,320 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Ball by 7.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after buying an additional 171,924 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in Ball by 6.1% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after buying an additional 99,306 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Ball by 458.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,139,000 after acquiring an additional 836,293 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $59.91 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $17.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.90. Ball Co. has a one year low of $51.65 and a one year high of $71.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $64.35 and its 200-day moving average is $64.47.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.83 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.03%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BALL. Baird R W raised Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley raised Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.