Ball (NYSE:BALL) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.12 EPS

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

Ball Stock Up 6.6 %

Shares of NYSE BALL traded up $4.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $69.80. 4,554,059 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,601,210. The company’s fifty day moving average is $65.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $58.03. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $42.81 and a fifty-two week high of $70.75. The stock has a market cap of $22.03 billion, a PE 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.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is 6.02%.

Insider Activity at Ball

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a report on Friday, April 12th. Mizuho upped their target price on Ball to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TheStreet raised Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors 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. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.