Ball (NYSE:BALL) Issues Earnings Results

Ball (NYSE:BALL) posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12, RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 EPS.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL opened at $69.82 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 firm has a market capitalization of $22.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.17, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.89. Ball has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $70.75. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $65.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.95.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ball declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on BALL shares. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective for the company. TheStreet raised shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on shares of Ball in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Ball Company Profile

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.