Ball (NYSE:BALL) PT Raised to $82.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price target boosted by Royal Bank of Canada from $74.00 to $82.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

BALL has been the subject of several other research reports. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a neutral rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America upgraded Ball from an underperform rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set an equal weight rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $68.08.

Ball Price Performance

BALL opened at $70.72 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.89. Ball has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $70.82.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 6.02%.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its stake in Ball by 80.4% during the third quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in Ball during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Ball in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. 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.