Truist Financial Upgrades Ball (NYSE:BLL) to “Buy”

Ball (NYSE:BLL – Get Rating) was upgraded by stock analysts at Truist Financial from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, The Fly reports.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Citigroup dropped their price target on Ball from $104.00 to $96.00 in a research note on Friday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered Ball from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Northland Securities raised their price objective on Ball from $115.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Friday, January 28th. TheStreet lowered Ball from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Ball from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $110.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 20th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.38.

The company has a market capitalization of $22.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.09, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $87.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.39. Ball has a one year low of $69.10 and a one year high of $98.09.

Ball (NYSE:BLL – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.06). Ball had a net margin of 7.80% and a return on equity of 30.95%. The firm had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.52 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.72 earnings per share. Ball’s quarterly revenue was up 18.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other news, Director Betty J. Sapp acquired 1,362 shares of Ball stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 10th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $85.55 per share, for a total transaction of $116,519.10. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Nate C. Carey sold 8,563 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.90, for a total transaction of $786,939.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have bought 15,862 shares of company stock valued at $1,381,499 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BLL. Clearstead Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 1,357.9% in the third quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 277 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Perkins Coie Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter worth approximately $44,000. 82.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Ball (Get Rating)

Ball Corp. provides metal packaging for beverages, foods, and household products. It operates through the following business segments: Beverage Packaging North and Central America, Beverage Packaging South America, Beverage Packaging Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Aerospace. The Beverage Packaging North and Central America segment includes multi-year supply contracts to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.

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