Analysts Set Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Target Price at $70.75

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.75.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on BALL. Robert W. Baird upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th.

Ball Stock Down 1.6 %

BALL opened at $60.92 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $64.51 and a 200-day moving average of $64.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball has a 1-year low of $51.62 and a 1-year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.03%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Ball by 44.2% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 63,538 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,315,000 after buying an additional 19,481 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Ball by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 93,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,339,000 after acquiring an additional 6,963 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ball in the third quarter worth about $2,313,000. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 24.5% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 20,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,371,000 after purchasing an additional 3,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ball by 10.7% during the third quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,772 shares of the company’s stock valued at $799,000 after purchasing an additional 1,135 shares during the last quarter. 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.