Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives $64.64 Average Target Price from Analysts

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

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays cut their price target 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. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th.

Ball Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of BALL opened at $52.31 on Friday. Ball has a 52-week low of $48.95 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $52.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.71. The stock has a market cap of $14.77 billion, a PE ratio of 4.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.32%.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Ball by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,732,000 after purchasing an additional 803,728 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after purchasing an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Ball by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $229,310,000 after purchasing an additional 840,357 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $190,105,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Ball by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,055,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,447,000 after purchasing an additional 367,798 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.