Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $56.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price objective lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $61.00 to $56.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Citigroup upped their target price on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.08.

Ball Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $53.49 on Monday. Ball has a 52 week low of $52.97 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $58.54 and a 200 day moving average of $61.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.03, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. Ball’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 400.4% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,048,000 after purchasing an additional 130,175 shares in the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $774,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 9.7% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 538,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,293,000 after acquiring an additional 47,539 shares during the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 12.3% in the second quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $543,000 after acquiring an additional 990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 7.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after acquiring an additional 171,924 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

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.