Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) Plans $0.20 Quarterly Dividend

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 24th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share on Tuesday, September 17th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.29%.

Ball has increased its dividend by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years. Ball has a payout ratio of 22.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Ball to earn $3.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.3%.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE:BALL traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $62.06. 1,253,609 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,952,720. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. Ball has a 1 year low of $42.81 and a 1 year high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $19.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.85. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $64.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.72.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. Ball had a net margin of 31.42% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.69 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Ball from $71.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Ball from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $67.00 to $76.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Ball from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ball presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $69.08.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Pedro Henrique Mariani sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $349,500.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $688,095.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.81% of the company’s stock.

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.