Barclays Boosts Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $72.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price objective lifted by Barclays from $71.00 to $72.00 in a report published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wolfe Research started coverage on Ball in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a peer perform rating on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a sell rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set an equal weight rating and a $68.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a neutral rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $69.23.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $69.89 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a fifty day moving average of $66.08 and a 200-day moving average of $59.31. Ball has a 52-week low of $42.81 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The company’s revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.69 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.11 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.81% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ball

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Ball by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,252,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,020,000 after acquiring an additional 143,005 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its position in Ball by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 1,469,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,149,000 after purchasing an additional 282,114 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Ball by 82.8% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 309,970 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,430,000 after purchasing an additional 140,440 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Ball by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 389,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,384,000 after purchasing an additional 16,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Ball by 25.3% in the third quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 85,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,245,000 after buying an additional 17,215 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.