Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives $69.23 Average Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $69.23.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BALL shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Ball from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. TheStreet raised Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Mizuho boosted their target price on Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $688,095.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the fourth 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. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.3% in the third 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 lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 39.5% in the fourth 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. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 3.8% in the third 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. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $68.88 on Friday. Ball has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $21.38 billion, a PE ratio of 5.18, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.43 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.24.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 31.42%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

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.