Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) has received an average rating of "Hold" from the thirteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $65.58.

BALL has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Bank of America raised Ball from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a "peer perform" rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised Ball from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ball by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company's stock worth $1,211,527,000 after acquiring an additional 998,527 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Ball by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company's stock worth $291,408,000 after buying an additional 72,585 shares during the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC raised its position in 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 purchasing an additional 1,645,909 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Ball by 3.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company's stock valued at $156,248,000 after purchasing an additional 115,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jensen Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Ball by 3.1% in the third quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,126,992 shares of the company's stock valued at $155,662,000 after purchasing an additional 95,415 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.51% of the company's stock.

Ball Price Performance

BALL stock traded down $0.32 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $65.18. The company had a trading volume of 1,901,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,824,852. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $67.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.10, a P/E/G ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day moving average of $64.90 and a 200 day moving average of $57.73.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $0.44 EPS. Ball's revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. Ball's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.71%.

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.