Royal Bank of Canada Has Lowered Expectations for Ball (NYSE:BALL) Stock Price

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its target price decreased by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from $75.00 to $66.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target indicates a potential upside of 30.80% from the stock’s previous close.

BALL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.50.

Ball Trading Down 1.6 %

Ball stock opened at $50.46 on Thursday. Ball has a 52 week low of $50.44 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $55.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $15.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.94.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 328.4% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter worth $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at about $66,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 29.1% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

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.