Ball (NYSE:BALL) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Barclays

Ball (NYSE:BALL)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Barclays in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They presently have a $71.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $66.00. Barclays‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 6.80% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. TheStreet raised Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Mizuho raised their target price on Ball to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Bank of America raised Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Ball in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.58.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $66.48 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $63.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.19. 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 firm has a market cap of $20.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68, a PEG ratio of 4.31 and a beta of 0.89. Ball has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $67.97.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its position in Ball by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,211,527,000 after buying an additional 998,527 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Ball by 66.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 14,830,193 shares of the company’s stock valued at $817,294,000 after purchasing an additional 5,903,021 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Ball by 1.2% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,952,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $812,163,000 after purchasing an additional 169,166 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Ball by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,979,673 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,081,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200,145 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ball by 0.6% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,700,954 shares of the company’s stock valued at $368,473,000 after purchasing an additional 37,672 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ball Company Profile

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.