Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $70.75.

Several analysts recently issued reports on BALL shares. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball during the third quarter valued at $47,000. Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 598.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after purchasing an additional 856 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ball by 334.0% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,059 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares in 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 firm has a market cap of $16.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $59.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.18. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $53.85 and a fifty-two week 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The firm’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.48%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

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.