Truist Financial Cuts Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $73.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price objective cut by Truist Financial from $78.00 to $73.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Citigroup increased their price objective on Ball from $66.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.08.

Ball Stock Down 0.4 %

Ball stock opened at $53.49 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball has a 1-year low of $52.97 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $15.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $453,144,000 after buying an additional 309,587 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 15.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Ball by 7.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,414,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,951,000 after acquiring an additional 171,924 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Ball by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company’s stock worth $116,864,000 after purchasing an additional 99,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Ball by 458.6% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,018,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,139,000 after purchasing an additional 836,293 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.