HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 5,942 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 34,074 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,942 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $2,312,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Ball in the third quarter valued at about $66,000. Quarry LP lifted its position in Ball by 598.6% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares during the period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 29.1% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BALL shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.75.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $58.24 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $62.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.37. The firm has a market cap of $17.38 billion, a PE ratio of 4.39, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. 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 1-year low of $54.06 and a 1-year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.