Brokerages Set Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Price Target at $71.25

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $71.08.

Several analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $78.00 price target (up previously from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Independence Bank of Kentucky acquired a new stake in Ball in the 1st quarter valued at about $47,000. Friedenthal Financial acquired a new stake in Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at about $47,000. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in Ball by 598.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 856 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 334.0% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,059 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at about $72,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $67.25 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.20. The firm has a market cap of $20.87 billion, a PE ratio of 5.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.88. Ball has a 12-month low of $42.81 and a 12-month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

About Ball

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.