Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The industrial products company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.02, Bloomberg Earnings reports. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.81 billion. Ball Corporation had a return on equity of 16.46% and a net margin of 4.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.05 EPS.
Shares of Ball Corporation (NYSE:BLL) traded down 0.12% during trading on Friday, reaching $40.56. 2,918,937 shares of the company traded hands. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $42.07 and a 200 day moving average of $39.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.24 billion, a PE ratio of 30.18 and a beta of 0.95. Ball Corporation has a 52 week low of $34.88 and a 52 week high of $43.06.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, September 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. Ball Corporation’s payout ratio is 26.67%.
In other Ball Corporation news, Director R David Hoover sold 22,000 shares of Ball Corporation stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.75, for a total transaction of $874,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 205,260 shares in the company, valued at $8,159,085. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Daniel William Fisher sold 1,000 shares of Ball Corporation stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.75, for a total transaction of $79,750.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 4,922 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $392,529.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 112,999 shares of company stock worth $4,686,653 over the last ninety days. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ball Corporation by 4.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,276,432 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,282,948,000 after buying an additional 683,310 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ball Corporation by 2,907.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,298,454 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $764,763,000 after buying an additional 9,956,034 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball Corporation by 118.9% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 7,644,161 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $322,660,000 after buying an additional 4,151,548 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ball Corporation by 2.2% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,550,160 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $560,675,000 after buying an additional 161,792 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Ball Corporation by 15.8% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,054,566 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $523,873,000 after buying an additional 962,025 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 44.63% of the company’s stock.
Several analysts have commented on the stock. BidaskClub cut shares of Ball Corporation from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Ball Corporation from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 20th. Deutsche Bank AG restated a “buy” rating and issued a $47.00 target price (up from $44.00) on shares of Ball Corporation in a report on Tuesday, July 18th. Jefferies Group LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price (up from $47.00) on shares of Ball Corporation in a report on Friday, July 14th. Finally, ValuEngine downgraded shares of Ball Corporation from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.90.
About Ball Corporation
Ball Corporation is a supplier of metal packaging to the beverage, food, personal care and household products industries. The Company’s packaging products are produced for a range of end uses and are manufactured in facilities around the world. Its segments include beverage packaging, North and Central America; beverage packaging, South America; beverage packaging, Europe; food and aerosol packaging; aerospace, and other.
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