Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target Lowered to $63.00 at Robert W. Baird

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by equities research analysts at Robert W. Baird from $70.00 to $63.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an "outperform" rating on the stock. Robert W. Baird's price target points to a potential upside of 22.87% from the company's current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on BALL. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Mizuho upgraded Ball from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $67.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group upgraded Ball from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company restated an "underweight" rating and issued a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $65.50.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL traded up $0.09 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $51.28. The stock had a trading volume of 3,024,063 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,702,798. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $15.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.87, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 0.94. Ball has a 52 week low of $50.76 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $55.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.07.

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.78 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ball

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Ball by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,954,876 shares of the company's stock valued at $453,144,000 after purchasing an additional 309,587 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in Ball by 15.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,418,570 shares of the company's stock valued at $300,065,000 after acquiring an additional 588,282 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ball by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,891,046 shares of the company's stock worth $104,253,000 after acquiring an additional 36,809 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of Ball by 6.1% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,720,859 shares of the company's stock worth $116,864,000 after acquiring an additional 99,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ball in the 4th quarter worth approximately $94,861,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.