Ball (NYSE:BALL) Receives “Underweight” Rating from Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company reissued their underweight rating on shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has a $49.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $56.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.17.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $54.22 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball has a 52 week low of $51.96 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.18 billion, a PE ratio of 4.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.93. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $57.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.67.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion during 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.48%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 0.9% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 18,941 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,137,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 4.5% during the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 4,442 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ball by 1.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,895 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 10,082 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the period. Finally, Opal Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 7.6% during the third quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,033 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.