Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $65.25.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BALL. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter worth $774,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Ball by 400.4% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 162,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,048,000 after acquiring an additional 130,175 shares in the last quarter. Estate Counselors LLC purchased a new position in Ball during the third quarter valued at $1,825,000. Hemenway Trust Co LLC lifted its position in Ball by 46.3% during the third quarter. Hemenway Trust Co LLC now owns 275,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $18,681,000 after purchasing an additional 87,120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA lifted its position in Ball by 531,933.3% during the fourth quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 47,883 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 47,874 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $50.78 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $53.60 and its 200 day moving average is $59.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $14.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. Ball has a one year low of $48.95 and a one year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Ball will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.