Ball (NYSE:BALL) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at Citigroup

Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock.

Several other research firms have also commented on BALL. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Ball from $54.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ball from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Ball to $63.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ball from an underperform rating to a buy rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $65.17.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $67.15 on Wednesday. Ball has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $67.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.98, a PEG ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $61.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $55.48.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. Ball’s payout ratio is 35.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BALL. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Ball by 446.3% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 366 shares during the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Covington Capital Management purchased a new stake in Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its holdings in Ball by 80.4% during the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the period. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by 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.