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

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $64.64.

A number of analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BALL. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth $190,105,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $94,861,000. London Co. of Virginia lifted its stake in Ball by 61.1% during the 4th quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,668 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Ball by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,159,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $229,310,000 after acquiring an additional 840,357 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,758,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,732,000 after acquiring an additional 803,728 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $51.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.66 billion, a PE ratio of 4.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $52.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

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.