Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives $70.75 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $70.75.

A number of research firms have issued reports on BALL. Robert W. Baird raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Ball from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Baird R W raised Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th.

Ball Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE BALL opened at $57.68 on Thursday. Ball has a one year low of $54.06 and a one year high of $71.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $63.69. The firm has a market cap of $17.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.35, a PEG ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 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 the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.03%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the third quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the second quarter worth approximately $47,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $66,000. Finally, Quarry LP increased its stake in Ball by 598.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,000 after buying an additional 856 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is 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.