Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $65.2727.

BALL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 18th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th.

Ball Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE BALL opened at $53.71 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.15. Ball has a 52 week low of $43.51 and a 52 week high of $68.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market cap of $14.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.08.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 4.49% and a return on equity of 16.81%. The business had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 41.45%.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Ball by 44.2% during the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,002,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $416,681,000 after purchasing an additional 2,453,630 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Ball by 5.1% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,370,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $227,560,000 after acquiring an additional 210,838 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Ball by 10.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,370,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,480,000 after acquiring an additional 315,091 shares during the last quarter. London Co. of Virginia grew its position in shares of Ball by 61.1% during the fourth quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Ball by 0.7% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,046,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $158,623,000 after acquiring an additional 19,921 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.