Royal Bank of Canada Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Ball (NYSE:BALL) Stock Price

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price target lowered by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $75.00 to $66.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 28.36% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on BALL. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Barclays reduced their target price on Ball from $72.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $65.50.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $51.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 980,506 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,613,945. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $15.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.94. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $55.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.07. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $50.76 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.92 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Ball

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in Ball during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $234,000. Creative Planning grew its stake in Ball by 8.2% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 19,148 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,459 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Ball during the second quarter worth approximately $1,453,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its holdings in Ball by 143.6% in the third quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,872 shares of the company’s stock worth $670,000 after purchasing an additional 5,819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank lifted its stake in Ball by 4.6% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 61,839 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,199,000 after buying an additional 2,693 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.