Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the thirteen research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $65.58.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $71.00 target price (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company.

Ball Trading Up 6.6 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $69.80 on Wednesday. Ball has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $70.75. The company’s 50 day moving average is $65.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a PE ratio of 5.25, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.69 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Ball will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after purchasing an additional 998,527 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company’s stock valued at $291,408,000 after purchasing an additional 72,585 shares in the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 39.5% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,645,909 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,248,000 after purchasing an additional 115,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jensen Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,126,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,662,000 after purchasing an additional 95,415 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.