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

Shares of Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $65.25.

BALL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $66.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Ball from $75.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Ball from $60.00 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Picton Mahoney Asset Management grew its holdings in Ball by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 522 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ball during the third quarter worth $30,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Ball by 328.4% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 664 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 509 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ball during the third quarter worth $47,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in Ball during the third quarter worth $66,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

Ball Price Performance

BALL stock opened at $51.35 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $53.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.99. The stock has a market cap of $15.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.06, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.94. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $48.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90.

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

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 6.32%.

Ball declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.