UBS Group Upgrades Ball (NYSE:BALL) to Neutral

UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. UBS Group currently has $58.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $62.00.

BALL has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Ball from $61.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.00.

Ball Price Performance

BALL stock opened at $52.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.52 billion, a PE ratio of 3.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $58.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.82. Ball has a one year low of $51.96 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. ORG Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Ball by 298.9% during the 4th quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,428 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 1,070 shares in the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at about $774,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Ball by 1.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 364,856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,777,000 after purchasing an additional 3,967 shares during the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Ball in the third quarter worth about $504,000. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in Ball during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,195,000. Institutional investors 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.