Ball (NYSE:BALL) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.12 EPS

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

Ball Stock Up 6.6 %

NYSE BALL traded up $4.35 during trading on Friday, reaching $69.80. 4,554,059 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,601,210. The stock has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 0.54 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $65.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $58.03. Ball has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $70.75.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.02%.

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 stock was bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Bank of America upgraded Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded 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 note on Tuesday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Ball in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “sell” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that allows the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.