Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Wellington Management Group LLP

Wellington Management Group LLP cut its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 29.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,677,221 shares of the company's stock after selling 688,172 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned 0.56% of Ball worth $113,900,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of Ball by 6.6% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 59,146 shares of the company's stock worth $3,550,000 after acquiring an additional 3,669 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new position in Ball in the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Addenda Capital Inc. increased its stake in Ball by 7.3% in the second quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 153,464 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,211,000 after purchasing an additional 10,427 shares during the last quarter. PGGM Investments purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at $285,000. Finally, 180 Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 26.3% during the second quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,812 shares of the company's stock worth $1,864,000 after purchasing an additional 6,420 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Mizuho raised Ball from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Baird R W raised Ball from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL traded down $0.59 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $57.08. 2,830,012 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,833,254. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.61. Ball Co. has a fifty-two week low of $54.06 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.03 billion, a PE ratio of 4.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.