Ball (NYSE:BALL) Sets New 1-Year Low – Time to Sell?

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $50.28 and last traded at $50.74, with a volume of 106741 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $50.47.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho raised shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.50.

Ball Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $15.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $60.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) 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 return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.78 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Ball Co. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 6.32%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Ball by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,253,000 after acquiring an additional 36,809 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Ball by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after acquiring an additional 99,306 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,861,000. 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.