Ball (NYSE:BALL) Earns Neutral Rating from Analysts at Citigroup

Research analysts at Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup’s price target points to a potential upside of 3.92% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Ball to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.17.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $67.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $21.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.89. Ball has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $67.85. The company’s 50-day moving average is $61.88 and its 200 day moving average is $55.56.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.44 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Ball will post 3.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Quarry LP grew its holdings in Ball by 446.3% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Covington Capital Management bought a new stake in Ball in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its stake in Ball by 80.4% in the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 572 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ball during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. 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.