Ball (NYSE:BALL) to Buyback $4.00 billion in Outstanding Shares

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

Ball Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE BALL traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $55.35. The company had a trading volume of 1,995,230 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,323,757. The stock has a market cap of $16.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. Ball has a 52 week low of $51.96 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The business’s 50-day moving average is $56.87 and its 200-day moving average is $61.37.

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

Ball Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. Ball’s payout ratio is 6.03%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BALL shares. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $49.00 price target (down previously from $56.00) on shares of Ball in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. UBS Group raised shares of Ball from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $62.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Ball from $69.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.