Robert W. Baird Lowers Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $63.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price target dropped by Robert W. Baird from $70.00 to $63.00 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price points to a potential upside of 22.87% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on BALL. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group upgraded Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.50.

Ball Stock Up 0.2 %

BALL opened at $51.28 on Wednesday. Ball has a 12 month low of $50.76 and a 12 month high of $71.32. 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 stock has a market cap of $15.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $55.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.07.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $30,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 328.4% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the third quarter worth $66,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 29.1% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 228 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.