Ball (NYSE:BALL) Announces Earnings Results

Ball (NYSE:BALL - Get Free Report) announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.12, RTT News reports. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion for 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 business's quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.69 earnings per share.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of Ball stock traded up $4.37 during trading on Friday, hitting $69.82. 4,553,616 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,863,611. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $64.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $57.78. Ball has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $70.75. 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 Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Ball's dividend payout ratio is presently 35.71%.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of Ball stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average price 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 purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BALL shares. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a "peer perform" rating on the stock. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $70.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of Ball from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Ball to $63.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus 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.