Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL – Get Rating) shares saw strong trading volume on Friday after Mizuho raised their price target on the stock from $51.00 to $53.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. 36,059 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 98% from the previous session's volume of 1,481,819 shares.The stock last traded at $56.74 and had previously closed at $57.15.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Bank of America cut their price target on Ball from $68.00 to $60.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Ball from $53.00 to $46.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price target on Ball from $64.00 to $58.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ball to $55.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 15th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group dropped their price objective on Ball from $77.00 to $65.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $57.50.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other news, Director Cynthia A. Niekamp purchased 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 10th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $51.81 per share, for a total transaction of $103,620.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $569,910. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 6,400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $54.42 per share, with a total value of $348,288.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 107,997 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,877,196.74. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Cynthia A. Niekamp purchased 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $51.81 per share, with a total value of $103,620.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $569,910. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Ball Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $17.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The stock's 50-day moving average is $53.57 and its 200-day moving average is $56.93.

Ball (NYSE:BALL – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 3rd. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.01). Ball had a return on equity of 29.07% and a net margin of 6.21%. The company had revenue of $3.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.93 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ball Co. will post 2.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 1st were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 30th. Ball's dividend payout ratio is 27.03%.

Ball Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Ball Corporation supplies aluminum packaging products for the beverage, personal care, and household products industries in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Beverage Packaging, North and Central America; Beverage Packaging, Europe, Middle East and Africa; Beverage Packaging, South America; and Aerospace.

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