ETRADE Capital Management LLC Sells 2,520 Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BLL)

ETRADE Capital Management LLC decreased its position in Ball Co. (NYSE:BLL) by 27.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 6,796 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 2,520 shares during the period. ETRADE Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ball were worth $439,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BLL. Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Ball by 21.3% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,206,054 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $77,983,000 after acquiring an additional 211,500 shares during the last quarter. Mackay Shields LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 92.1% during the 1st quarter. Mackay Shields LLC now owns 97,221 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,286,000 after purchasing an additional 46,605 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its position in Ball by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 29,168 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,886,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ball by 485.8% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,369 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $670,000 after buying an additional 8,599 shares during the period. Finally, Trillium Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ball by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Trillium Asset Management LLC now owns 175,720 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,362,000 after buying an additional 9,771 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.95% of the company’s stock.

Several research firms have recently commented on BLL. Wells Fargo & Co dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $88.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Ball from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Deutsche Bank decreased their target price on Ball from $86.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Ball from $82.00 to $72.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 8th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Ball has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.70.

Shares of BLL opened at $64.51 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $21.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.08, a P/E/G ratio of 4.85 and a beta of 0.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.52. Ball Co. has a 12 month low of $51.26 and a 12 month high of $82.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.77.

Ball (NYSE:BLL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.01. Ball had a return on equity of 28.11% and a net margin of 4.11%. The business had revenue of $2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.81 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.49 EPS. Ball’s revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 2.66 EPS for the current year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 29th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

Ball Profile

Ball Corp. provides metal packaging for beverages, foods and household products, and of aerospace and other technologies and services to commercial and governmental customers. It operates through the following business segments: Beverage Packaging, North and Central America; Beverage Packaging, South America; Beverage Packaging, Europe; Food and Aerosol Packaging; and Aerospace.

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