Wells Fargo & Company Cuts Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $61.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price objective cut by Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $61.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on BALL. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.92.

Ball Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $59.01 on Friday. Ball has a 52-week low of $47.56 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $65.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $65.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $17.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.45, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.90.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.83 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ball will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Ball by 6.3% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 36,832 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,501,000 after acquiring an additional 2,192 shares in the last quarter. JB Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. JB Capital LLC now owns 52,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,559,000 after purchasing an additional 5,207 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 364,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,777,000 after purchasing an additional 3,967 shares in the last quarter. Advisor Resource Council acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at about $324,000. Finally, M&G PLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 5.2% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 790,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,729,000 after buying an additional 38,714 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

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.