Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC Sells 1,907 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)

Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) by 14.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 11,737 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,907 shares during the quarter. Baker Ellis Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $611,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Picton Mahoney Asset Management grew its stake in shares of Ball by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,852 shares of the company’s stock worth $201,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the period. Jag Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Jag Capital Management LLC now owns 26,729 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,474,000 after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the period. Crumly & Associates Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 9,050 shares of the company’s stock worth $499,000 after acquiring an additional 293 shares during the period. Finally, Toth Financial Advisory Corp grew its stake in shares of Ball by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 53,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,778,000 after acquiring an additional 325 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Ball from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. UBS Group cut their target price on Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Loop Capital cut their target price on Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Mizuho cut their target price on Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.00.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $54.93 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $15.24 billion, a PE ratio of 4.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $51.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.05. Ball Co. has a 12-month low of $43.51 and a 12-month high of $68.85.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Monday, June 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 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.