Independent Advisor Alliance Sells 229 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Independent Advisor Alliance trimmed its stake in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,834 shares of the company’s stock after selling 229 shares during the quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Ball were worth $260,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ball by 306.6% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 31,750 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,906,000 after purchasing an additional 23,941 shares in the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 7.3% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the first quarter valued at approximately $12,292,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Ball by 400.4% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,048,000 after acquiring an additional 130,175 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 12.3% in the 2nd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,039 shares of the company’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 990 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.75.

Ball Stock Up 0.4 %

BALL opened at $62.60 on Friday. Ball Co. has a 1-year low of $53.69 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $18.68 billion, a PE ratio of 4.72, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Ball 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.