Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $61.00.

Several equities analysts recently commented on BALL shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Ball from $61.00 to $57.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $58.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $58.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of Ball from $83.00 to $78.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $56.18 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $52.35 and a 200 day moving average of $52.63. The stock has a market cap of $15.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.08. Ball has a 12 month low of $43.51 and a 12 month high of $68.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.91 billion. Ball had a net margin of 4.18% and a return on equity of 15.41%. Ball's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.42%. Ball's payout ratio is 47.62%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $190,105,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 44.2% in the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,002,327 shares of the company's stock worth $416,681,000 after acquiring an additional 2,453,630 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,861,000. London Co. of Virginia lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 61.1% in the 4th quarter. London Co. of Virginia now owns 3,054,393 shares of the company's stock worth $168,389,000 after acquiring an additional 1,158,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 359.3% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,184,629 shares of the company's stock worth $60,299,000 after acquiring an additional 926,728 shares during the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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