Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target Increased to $70.00 by Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price target boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $59.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

BALL has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Ball from an underperform rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Ball from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $68.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an equal weight rating and issued a $71.00 price target (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, April 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $69.15.

Ball Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE:BALL opened at $68.22 on Wednesday. Ball has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $65.58 and a 200 day moving average of $58.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.13, a PEG ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results 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 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

Ball announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Ball

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

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $168,372,000. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at about $109,022,000. Putnam Investments LLC grew its position 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 during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its position 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 during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of Ball by 146.6% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,470,641 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,730,000 after purchasing an additional 874,325 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.