Brokerages Set Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Price Target at $65.58

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the thirteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have given a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $65.58.

BALL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on Ball in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price for the company.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $69.82 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.95. The stock has a market cap of $22.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.17, a PEG ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.89. Ball has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $70.75.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 35.71%.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $168,372,000. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $109,022,000. Putnam Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 39.5% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,645,909 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after purchasing an additional 998,527 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 146.6% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,470,641 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,730,000 after purchasing an additional 874,325 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by 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.