Analysts Set Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Target Price at $65.25

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $65.25.

Several brokerages recently commented on BALL. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Forum Financial Management LP bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $483,000. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its stake in shares of Ball by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 160,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,839,000 after acquiring an additional 9,173 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth about $5,590,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,135,000. Finally, Inspire Trust Co. N.A. grew its position in Ball by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 54,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,977,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $50.78 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $14.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.00. Ball has a 52 week low of $48.95 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. Ball had a net margin of 33.98% and a return on equity of 16.17%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.78 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

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

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.