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

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

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an equal weight rating and a $68.00 price target for the company. Barclays reissued an equal weight rating and set a $71.00 price target (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday. TheStreet raised shares of Ball from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ball from an underperform rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $69.15.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL opened at $68.22 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Ball has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.53 billion, a PE ratio of 5.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. 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 business earned $0.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Insider Activity

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its stake in shares of Ball by 80.4% during the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Independence Bank of Kentucky purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter valued at $47,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 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.