Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the fifteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $69.08.

Several research firms recently weighed in on BALL. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 8th.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $64.34 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $19.97 billion, a PE ratio of 4.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85. Ball has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.76.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ball by 0.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,415,214,000 after acquiring an additional 267,479 shares in the last quarter. 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 worth $1,211,527,000 after acquiring an additional 998,527 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC grew its position in Ball by 39.5% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in Ball by 114.1% in the first 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. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ball in the fourth quarter worth about $168,372,000. 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.