Ball (NYSE:BALL) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Ball (NYSE:BALL) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.04, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.10 billion. Ball had a net margin of 32.79% and a return on equity of 19.45%. The company’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE BALL traded up $0.22 on Friday, reaching $64.76. 2,380,943 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,638,834. Ball has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $71.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 0.93. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $63.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.05. The stock has a market cap of $20.10 billion, a PE ratio of 4.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.85.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 3rd. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ball

In other Ball news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total transaction of $349,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,844 shares in the company, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on BALL shares. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Ball from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.23.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase 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.

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.