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

Ball (NYSE:BALL) issued its quarterly 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.69 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Ball Trading Up 6.6 %

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.02%.

Insider Activity at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, April 12th. 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. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ball in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. TheStreet upgraded Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on Ball in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “sell” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.58.

Ball announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.