Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target Raised to $70.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) had its price target raised by equities research analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $59.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "neutral" rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s target price points to a potential upside of 2.61% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays restated an "equal weight" rating and set a $71.00 target price (up from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an "equal weight" rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $65.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $69.15.

Ball Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE BALL traded down $1.35 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $68.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,401,114 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,910,031. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.13, a PEG ratio of 4.56 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $58.55.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.69 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $168,372,000. Boston Partners acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $109,022,000. Putnam Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 39.5% in the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company's stock valued at $334,526,000 after buying an additional 1,645,909 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after buying an additional 998,527 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in shares of Ball by 146.6% in the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,470,641 shares of the company's stock valued at $71,730,000 after buying an additional 874,325 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

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.