Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives $70.75 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.75.

BALL has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group upped their price target 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. Baird R W raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $60.64 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $64.74 and its 200-day moving average is $64.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.10 billion, a PE ratio of 4.55, a PEG ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.90. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $48.35 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Boston Partners boosted its position in Ball by 114.1% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,347,000 after buying an additional 2,162,167 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Ball by 458.6% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,139,000 after acquiring an additional 836,293 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new position in Ball in the 1st quarter worth about $50,193,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Ball by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,415,214,000 after purchasing an additional 267,479 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 1,875.2% during the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 275,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,520,000 after purchasing an additional 261,303 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.