Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives $64.64 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $63.30.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on BALL shares. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays cut their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $50.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.69. Ball has a 1 year low of $48.95 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $52.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.43. The company has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.00, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.99.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.17% and a net margin of 33.98%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 6.32%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 199 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 10,969 shares of the company’s stock worth $745,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.