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

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%.

Ball has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.6% annually over the last three years. Ball has a dividend payout ratio of 20.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ball to earn $3.55 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 22.5%.

Ball Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE BALL opened at $55.35 on Thursday. Ball has a 52-week low of $51.96 and a 52-week high of $71.32. The business’s 50 day moving average is $56.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.33. The firm has a market cap of $16.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.17, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. Research analysts predict that Ball will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Ball announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 24.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.17.

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.