Swiss National Bank Sells 10,800 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Swiss National Bank reduced its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 921,188 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,800 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Ball were worth $62,558,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BALL. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 13.1% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 216,338 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,692,000 after purchasing an additional 25,048 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 7.5% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 5,031 shares of the company’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted 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. Finally, Broderick Brian C boosted its holdings in Ball by 37.7% during the third quarter. Broderick Brian C now owns 70,219 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,769,000 after purchasing an additional 19,220 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Baird R W upgraded Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. One 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Ball stock opened at $59.91 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.52, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $51.65 and a 12 month 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. 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.