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

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share on Monday, June 17th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%.

Ball has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years. Ball has a dividend payout ratio of 23.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ball to earn $3.48 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 23.0%.

Ball Stock Performance

Shares of BALL stock traded down $0.32 on Wednesday, reaching $65.18. The stock had a trading volume of 1,901,847 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,824,852. The company has a quick ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $64.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.96, a P/E/G ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.89. Ball has a 12 month low of $42.81 and a 12 month high of $67.97.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $3.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. Ball’s quarterly revenue was down 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on BALL shares. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Ball to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They issued a “sell” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $68.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $65.58.

Insider Activity at Ball

In other news, insider Daniel William Fisher acquired 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $64.56 per share, with a total value of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.81% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.