Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $70.83.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $78.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th.

Institutional Trading of Ball

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Ball by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,415,214,000 after acquiring an additional 267,479 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Ball by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,211,527,000 after purchasing an additional 998,527 shares during the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC boosted its stake in 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 during the period. Boston Partners grew its holdings in Ball by 114.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,347,000 after buying an additional 2,162,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirova US LLC increased its position in Ball by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,780,000 after buying an additional 13,320 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Stock Down 1.1 %

Ball stock opened at $66.43 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $63.93 and a 200-day moving average of $65.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.17 billion, a PE ratio of 5.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.61 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.