Morgan Stanley Cuts Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $75.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its target price decreased by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $78.00 to $75.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 41.94% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on BALL. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.75.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock traded up $0.83 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $52.84. The stock had a trading volume of 819,338 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,226,928. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $15.77 billion, a PE ratio of 3.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.93. Ball has a one year low of $51.96 and a one year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Ball by 7.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after acquiring an additional 171,924 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Ball by 6.1% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,864,000 after purchasing an additional 99,306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Ball by 458.6% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,139,000 after purchasing an additional 836,293 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

About Ball

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.