Ball (NYSE:BALL) Lifted to Strong-Buy at Baird R W

Baird R W upgraded shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on BALL. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Ball from $80.00 to $77.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $78.00 price objective (up from $76.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $69.08.

Ball Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of BALL opened at $63.42 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.45. The company has a market cap of $19.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.04. Ball had a return on equity of 19.45% and a net margin of 32.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $288,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the fourth quarter valued at $1,099,000. Latitude Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter valued at $207,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in Ball by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 28,902 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,662,000 after acquiring an additional 2,934 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its position in Ball by 71.8% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 441 shares during the period. 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.