Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by Simon Quick Advisors LLC

Simon Quick Advisors LLC lowered its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 8.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 34,438 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,313 shares during the period. Simon Quick Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $1,899,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Ball by 4.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock valued at $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Ball by 15.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in Ball by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after acquiring an additional 99,306 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Ball by 458.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,139,000 after acquiring an additional 836,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&G PLC raised its position in Ball by 5.2% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,729,000 after acquiring an additional 38,714 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Trading Up 1.4 %

Ball stock opened at $55.04 on Wednesday. Ball Co. has a 1 year low of $51.96 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $57.57 and its 200-day moving average is $61.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $16.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.15, a PEG ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm 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%. Ball’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.83 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Ball Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.17.

About Ball

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.