Credit Suisse Group Lowers Ball (NYSE:BALL) to Neutral

Credit Suisse Group downgraded shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $58.00 price objective on the stock, down from their previous price objective of $65.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on BALL. Bank of America cut Ball from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $63.00 in a report on Monday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Ball from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, August 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Ball from $59.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Ball from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and upped their target price for the company from $52.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 20th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $57.29.

Ball Stock Performance

BALL opened at $51.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $16.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.50. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.65. Ball has a 1-year low of $46.00 and a 1-year high of $62.14.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.84 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 21.43% and a net margin of 5.48%. The company’s revenue was down 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ball will post 3.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 31st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Ball’s payout ratio is 31.75%.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other news, insider David A. Kaufman sold 3,820 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.41, for a total transaction of $200,206.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,861 shares in the company, valued at approximately $464,405.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, VP Deron Goodwin sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.85, for a total transaction of $26,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 12,001 shares in the company, valued at approximately $634,252.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider David A. Kaufman sold 3,820 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.41, for a total value of $200,206.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 8,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $464,405.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,680,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,586,000 after purchasing an additional 44,526 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in Ball by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 24,286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,338,000 after purchasing an additional 2,281 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its holdings in Ball by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 139,229 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,673,000 after purchasing an additional 870 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the first quarter valued at about $495,000. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of Ball by 25.3% during the first quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 9,538 shares of the company’s stock valued at $526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,926 shares in the last quarter. 84.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ball

Ball Corp. provides metal packaging for beverages, foods, and household products. It operates through the following business segments: Beverage Packaging North and Central America, Beverage Packaging South America, Beverage Packaging Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Aerospace. The Beverage Packaging North and Central America segment includes multi-year supply contracts to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.