Boston Common Asset Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Boston Common Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 34.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 227,591 shares of the company's stock after selling 118,629 shares during the period. Boston Common Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Ball worth $11,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Ball by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company's stock worth $427,732,000 after buying an additional 803,728 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ball by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company's stock worth $229,310,000 after buying an additional 840,357 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $190,105,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Ball by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,055,441 shares of the company's stock worth $168,447,000 after buying an additional 367,798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, London Co. of Virginia boosted its holdings in Ball by 61.1% in the 4th quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company's stock worth $168,389,000 after buying an additional 1,158,668 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BALL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Loop Capital lowered their price objective on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 14th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $61.00.

Ball Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of BALL stock traded up $0.03 during trading on Friday, hitting $53.58. 5,447,727 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,202,466. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $50.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.40. Ball Co. has a 52-week low of $43.51 and a 52-week high of $70.07.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.91 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Ball's payout ratio is presently 47.62%.

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.