Ball (NYSE:BALL) to Repurchase 40,000,000 Outstanding Shares

Ball (NYSE:BALL) announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 price target (up from $66.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.58.

Ball Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BALL traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $65.18. 1,901,847 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,824,852. The company has a market cap of $20.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.10, a PEG ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $64.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.73. 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 has a twelve month low of $42.81 and a twelve month high of $67.97.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The company’s revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.71%.

Insider Activity at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the 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 completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.