Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $64.64.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BALL. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 target price (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th.

Ball Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of BALL opened at $51.83 on Friday. 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.57. Ball has a 1-year low of $48.95 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $14.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The company’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $94,861,000. London Co. of Virginia lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 61.1% during the 4th quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,668 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $229,310,000 after acquiring an additional 840,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,732,000 after acquiring an additional 803,728 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.