Citigroup Increases Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $69.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price objective upped by analysts at Citigroup from $66.00 to $69.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. Citigroup’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 5.59% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $71.08.

Ball Stock Down 1.7 %

BALL opened at $65.35 on Wednesday. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company has a fifty day moving average of $64.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.92, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.88.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,855,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,415,214,000 after acquiring an additional 267,479 shares during the period. Putnam Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Ball by 39.5% in the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,645,909 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Ball by 114.1% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,057,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $273,347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,162,167 shares during the period. Mirova US LLC increased its stake in Ball by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 2,495,497 shares of the company’s stock worth $149,780,000 after buying an additional 13,320 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in 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 period. 86.51% of the stock is 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.