Share Buyback Plan Approved by Ball (NYSE:BALL) Board

Ball (NYSE:BALL) declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase 40,000,000 outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Stock Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $65.18 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $64.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $57.73. Ball has a 1-year low of $42.81 and a 1-year high of $67.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $20.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.01. Ball had a net margin of 5.04% and a return on equity of 23.81%. The firm had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Ball Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Investors of record on Monday, June 3rd will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%. Ball’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.71%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BALL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Ball from $52.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Ball in a research note on Friday, April 12th. UBS Group began coverage on Ball in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. TheStreet raised Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on Ball in a report on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ball currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.58.

Insider Activity at Ball

In related news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,222,068.96. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by 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.