Ball (NYSE:BALL) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $78.00 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $69.00.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Ball from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and issued a $78.00 target price (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $69.85.

Ball Trading Up 1.5 %

Ball stock opened at $64.86 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $62.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.90. Ball has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $20.13 billion, a PE ratio of 4.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

Institutional Trading of Ball

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter worth about $168,372,000. Boston Partners lifted 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 acquiring an additional 2,162,167 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 39.5% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,645,909 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its position in Ball by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after acquiring an additional 998,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Ball by 458.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,139,000 after acquiring an additional 836,293 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.