Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target Increased to $82.00 by Analysts at Royal Bank of Canada

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price target boosted by Royal Bank of Canada from $74.00 to $82.00 in a research note released on Monday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on BALL. TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Ball from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Ball from an underperform rating to a buy rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ball has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $68.08.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock opened at $70.72 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The firm has a market cap of $22.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $65.29 and its 200-day moving average is $58.30. Ball has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $70.82.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 31.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.69 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Ball will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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 issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 6.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BALL. Parnassus Investments LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 998,527 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings 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 valued at $291,408,000 after purchasing an additional 72,585 shares during the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC increased its position in Ball by 39.5% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,645,909 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Ball by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $156,248,000 after purchasing an additional 115,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jensen Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 3.1% in the 3rd 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 and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

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.