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

Ball (NYSE:BALL) declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, January 29th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 24.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Ball Stock Down 0.7 %

BALL opened at $55.64 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $56.68 and its 200 day moving average is $61.30. Ball has a fifty-two week low of $51.96 and a fifty-two week high of $71.32. The stock 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 quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last issued its 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. Ball had a net margin of 34.05% and a return on equity of 17.46%. The firm had revenue of $3.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. Ball’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ball will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

BALL has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price objective (down from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho raised Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group raised Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup cut their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Ball from $78.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ball has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.17.

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.