Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Sells 1,698 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 85,840 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,698 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $5,829,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BALL. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 37.7% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 5,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $352,000 after buying an additional 1,431 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in Ball by 16.8% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,734 shares of the company’s stock worth $251,000 after purchasing an additional 538 shares during the period. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Ball during the first quarter valued at approximately $737,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 526,962 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,496,000 after purchasing an additional 10,240 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 57.1% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 9,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $669,000 after buying an additional 3,610 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $61.86 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $64.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.46 billion, a PE ratio of 4.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.90. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $53.57 and a 52-week high of $71.32. 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 (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Citigroup increased their target price on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently 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.