Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $71.25.

Several equities analysts have commented on BALL shares. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group upped their price objective 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Partners raised its position in Ball by 114.1% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,347,000 after buying an additional 2,162,167 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in Ball by 458.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,139,000 after purchasing an additional 836,293 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in Ball in the first quarter valued at about $50,193,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ball by 0.8% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Finally, AMI Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in Ball by 52.2% in the 1st quarter. AMI Asset Management Corp now owns 775,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,260,000 after purchasing an additional 266,114 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $66.03 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $64.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.18. The company has a market cap of $20.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.97, a PEG 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.61 EPS. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Ball will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.