Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target Cut to $66.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its target price cut by Citigroup from $73.00 to $66.00 in a report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Ball from $69.00 to $64.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an equal weight rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ball has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $69.23.

Ball Stock Performance

Ball stock opened at $60.50 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $65.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $63.39. Ball has a one year low of $42.81 and a one year high of $71.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.78 billion, a PE ratio of 4.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 31.42%. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 EPS. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.02%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of Ball stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at $688,095.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BALL. Jessup Wealth Management Inc purchased a new position in Ball during the 1st quarter worth approximately $7,479,000. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $1,211,527,000 after buying an additional 998,527 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,252,085 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,020,000 after buying an additional 143,005 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter valued at $1,973,000. Finally, Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. now owns 1,128,228 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,438,000 after buying an additional 78,402 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.51% of the company’s stock.

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.