Comparing Myers Industries (NYSE:MYE) & Ball (NYSE:BALL)

Ball (NYSE:BALL) and Myers Industries (NYSE:MYE) are both materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ball and Myers Industries, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ball	1	4	8	0	2.54
Myers Industries	0	1	2	0	2.67

Ball currently has a consensus price target of $71.69, suggesting a potential upside of 17.99%. Myers Industries has a consensus price target of $37.00, suggesting a potential upside of 24.41%. Given Myers Industries’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Myers Industries is more favorable than Ball.

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, Myers Industries has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ball and Myers Industries”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ball	$14.33 billion	1.12	$912.00 million	$3.53	17.21
Myers Industries	$844.62 million	1.32	$34.93 million	$0.97	30.66

Ball has higher revenue and earnings than Myers Industries. Ball is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Myers Industries, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Ball pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Myers Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.54 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Ball pays out 22.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Myers Industries pays out 55.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Profitability

This table compares Ball and Myers Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ball	6.61%	18.76%	5.35%
Myers Industries	4.86%	19.86%	6.88%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.5% of Ball shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.8% of Myers Industries shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ball shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Myers Industries shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Myers Industries beats Ball on 9 of the 16 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 Myers Industries

Myers Industries, Inc. engages in distribution of tire service supplies in Ohio. It operates through two segments, The Material Handling and Distribution. The Material Handling segment offers pallets, small parts bins, bulk shipping containers, and OEM parts, as well as storage and organization, and custom plastic products; and injection molded, rotationally molded or blow molded products, consumer fuel containers and tanks for water, fuel, and waste handling. It serves industrial manufacturing, food processing, retail/wholesale products distribution, agriculture, automotive, recreational and marine vehicles, healthcare, appliance, bakery, electronics, textiles, consumer markets, and other markets under Akro-Mils, Jamco, Buckhorn, Ameri-Kart, Scepter, Elkhart Plastics, Trilogy Plastics, and Signature Systems brands directly to end-users, as well as through distributors. The Distribution segment engages in the distribution of tools, equipment, and supplies for tire, wheel, and under-vehicle service on passenger, heavy truck, and off-road vehicles; and manufacture and sale of tire repair materials and custom rubber products, as well as reflective highway marking tapes under the Myers Tire Supply, Myers Tire Supply International, Tuffy Manufacturing, Mohawk Rubber Sales, Patch Rubber Company, Elrick, Fleetline, MTS, Seymoure, Advance Traffic Markings, and MXP brands. This segment serves retail and truck tire dealers, commercial auto and truck fleets, auto dealers, general service and repair centers, tire re-treaders, truck stop operations, and government agencies. Myers Industries, Inc. was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Akron, Ohio.