Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $70.75.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 4.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ball by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after buying an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Ball by 7.7% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after buying an additional 171,924 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in Ball by 6.1% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after buying an additional 99,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in Ball by 458.6% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,139,000 after acquiring an additional 836,293 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $54.03 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $16.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $59.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $62.09. Ball has a one year low of $53.85 and a one year high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

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.