Ball (NYSE:BALL) Stock Rating Upgraded by UBS Group

UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $58.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $62.00.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.00.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $52.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The business has a fifty day moving average of $58.29 and a 200 day moving average of $61.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.93. Ball has a 1 year low of $51.96 and a 1 year high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.03%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BALL. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Ball by 14.7% during the 2nd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,612 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,000 after buying an additional 335 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in Ball by 27.2% in the 2nd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 10,626 shares of the company’s stock valued at $638,000 after purchasing an additional 2,270 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at $384,000. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Ball during the 2nd quarter worth $72,000. Finally, Prudential PLC grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 123.6% during the second quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 7,163 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 3,959 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.