Ball (NYSE:BALL) Given New $69.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price objective raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $65.00 to $69.00 in a research report report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on BALL. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Monday. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a sell rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America upgraded Ball from an underperform rating to a buy rating and increased their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $68.08.

Ball Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $70.72 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.32 billion, a PE ratio of 5.32, a P/E/G ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.89. Ball has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $70.82. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.30.

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

Ball announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Ball

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. 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. NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in Ball during the third quarter valued at $29,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Independence Bank of Kentucky bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 1st quarter worth about $47,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ball during the 4th quarter worth about $43,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.