Truist Financial Reaffirms Hold Rating for Ball (NYSE:BALL)

Truist Financial restated their hold rating on shares of Ball (NYSE:BALL) in a research report report published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Truist Financial currently has a $60.00 price objective on the stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays restated an equal weight rating and set a $71.00 price target (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a neutral rating and a $70.00 price target for the company. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a sell rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $65.58.

Ball Trading Down 1.3 %

BALL opened at $65.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $64.04 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.88. Ball has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $67.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The business’s revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. Analysts expect that Ball will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of Ball by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 55,477 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,737,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ball by 13.0% during the 1st quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 101,480 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,836,000 after purchasing an additional 11,653 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter worth $170,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Ball by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $171,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ball during the 1st quarter worth $1,973,000. 86.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.