Brokerages Set Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) PT at $70.75

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.75.

BALL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. 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 note on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $55.13 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $16.45 billion, a PE ratio of 4.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. Ball has a twelve month low of $54.06 and a twelve month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. Ball’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Ball by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,137,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its position in shares of Ball by 17.0% during the second quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Ball by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Opal Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Ball by 7.6% during the third quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,033 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,000 after buying an additional 215 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.