Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for Ball (NYSE:BALL) Stock Price

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price target lowered by Morgan Stanley from $75.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the stock.

BALL has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Ball from $70.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $67.17.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock opened at $51.12 on Wednesday. Ball has a 12-month low of $50.81 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $56.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $15.26 billion, a PE ratio of 3.86, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.94.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The company 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 firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.78 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.03%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ball

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in shares of Ball in the second quarter worth about $234,000. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Ball by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 19,148 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,149,000 after purchasing an additional 1,459 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ball in the 2nd quarter worth about $1,453,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its position in Ball by 143.6% during 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 grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 2,693 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.