Ball (BALL) Scheduled to Post Quarterly Earnings on Friday

Ball (NYSE:BALL) is set to announce its earnings results before the market opens on Friday, April 26th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.56 per share for the quarter. Investors interested in participating in the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a return on equity of 23.81% and a net margin of 5.04%. The business had revenue of $3.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect Ball to post $3 EPS for the current fiscal year and $3 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Ball Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BALL opened at $65.18 on Thursday. 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 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $67.97. The stock has a market capitalization 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 has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $57.73.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 1.23%. Ball’s payout ratio is currently 35.71%.

Ball declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, April 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BALL has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Ball from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $72.00 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded Ball from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $61.00 to $74.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. TheStreet upgraded Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price target for the company. One research 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher purchased 3,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 111,866 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.