Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.20

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share on Monday, June 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%.

Ball has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.1% annually over the last three years. Ball has a dividend payout ratio of 23.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Ball to earn $3.48 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.0%.

Ball Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Ball stock opened at $65.45 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.78. The company has a market cap of $20.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. Ball has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $67.97.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly 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. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Ball to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $71.00 target price (up previously from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.81% 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.