Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BALL) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $65.2727.

A number of research firms have recently commented on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Ball from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 18th. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $66.00 target price (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Mizuho lifted their target price on Ball from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, 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 report on Wednesday, May 14th.

Ball Trading Up 0.9%

Ball stock opened at $50.89 on Friday. Ball has a 12-month low of $43.51 and a 12-month high of $68.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.85 billion, a PE ratio of 26.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $55.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $53.18.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.10 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 16.81% and a net margin of 4.49%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.74 earnings per share. Ball has set its FY 2025 guidance at 3.550-3.650 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 2nd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.45%.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In other Ball news, Chairman Daniel William Fisher sold 3,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.55, for a total value of $175,270.00. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 10,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $517,355.80. This represents a 25.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Ball by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 8,210,060 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,502,000 after acquiring an additional 207,733 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Ball by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,370,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,560,000 after purchasing an additional 210,838 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 2nd quarter valued at $192,463,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Ball by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,370,532 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,480,000 after purchasing an additional 315,091 shares in the last quarter. Finally, London Co. of Virginia increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,158,668 shares in the last quarter. 86.51% of the stock is 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.