Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Cuts Position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise decreased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 47.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,572 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,278 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $30,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the second quarter worth $47,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $47,000. Quarry LP increased its position in shares of Ball by 598.6% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 856 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ball by 334.0% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,059 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 815 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.75.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $60.42 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $52.92 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a market capitalization of $18.03 billion, a PE ratio of 4.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a fifty day moving average of $64.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.45.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.03%.

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.