Ball (NYSE:BALL – Get Free Report) and Greif (NYSE:GEF – Get Free Report) are both materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and risk.
Risk and Volatility
Ball has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Greif has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Ball and Greif, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Ball | 1 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 2.62 |
| Greif | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
Dividends
Ball pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Greif pays an annual dividend of $2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Ball pays out 22.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Greif pays out 77.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Greif has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Greif is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Profitability
This table compares Ball and Greif’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Ball | 6.61% | 18.76% | 5.35% |
| Greif | 7.53% | 8.09% | 3.86% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
86.5% of Ball shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 45.7% of Greif shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ball shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.7% of Greif shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Ball and Greif”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Ball | $13.16 billion | 1.21 | $912.00 million | $3.53 | 17.04 |
| Greif | $5.45 billion | 0.70 | $268.80 million | $3.19 | 25.96 |
Ball has higher revenue and earnings than Greif. Ball is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Greif, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Ball beats Greif on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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. It also manufactures and sells extruded aluminum aerosol containers, recloseable aluminum bottles, aluminum cups, and aluminum slugs. Ball Corporation was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado.
About Greif
Greif, Inc. engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries. The Paper Packaging & Services segment produces and sells containerboards, corrugated sheets and containers, and other corrugated and specialty products to customers in the packaging, automotive, food, and building products markets; and produces and sells coated and uncoated recycled paperboard, and recycled fiber. This segment's corrugated container products are used to ship various products, such as home appliances, small machinery, grocery products, automotive components, books, and furniture, as well as various other applications. The Land Management segment engages in harvesting and regeneration of timber properties; and sale of timberland and special use properties. As of October 31, 2023, this segment owned approximately 175,000 acres of timber properties in the southeastern United States. The company was formerly known as Greif Bros. Corporation and changed its name to Greif, Inc. in 2001. Greif, Inc. was founded in 1877 and is headquartered in Delaware, Ohio.
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