Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Shares Sold by DAVENPORT & Co LLC

DAVENPORT & Co LLC reduced its holdings in Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL - Free Report) by 61.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,524 shares of the company's stock after selling 36,004 shares during the quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC's holdings in Ball were worth $1,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BALL. Picton Mahoney Asset Management raised its holdings in Ball by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 764.9% during the first quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 813 shares of the company's stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter worth $70,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 51.3% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,474 shares of the company's stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the first quarter worth $83,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 7th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Mizuho cut their price target on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on Ball from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $61.40.

Ball Trading Down 0.5%

Ball stock traded down $0.30 during trading on Monday, hitting $58.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,856,583 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,220,061. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.08. The stock's fifty day moving average is $54.14 and its 200 day moving average is $52.64. Ball Corporation has a 1-year low of $43.51 and a 1-year high of $68.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last released its 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.91 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 15.41% and a net margin of 4.18%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ball Corporation will post 3.48 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.37%. Ball's payout ratio is currently 47.62%.

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.