Share Repurchase Program Authorized by Ball (NYSE:BALL) Board of Directors

Ball (NYSE:BALL) announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, January 29th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Ball Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of BALL stock opened at $55.64 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $56.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.30. Ball has a 1-year low of $51.96 and a 1-year high of $71.32. The company has a market cap of $16.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 17.46% and a net margin of 34.05%. The company’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.83 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on BALL. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Truist Financial lowered 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. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Ball from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.17.

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.