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Analysts Anticipate Ball Co. (BLL) Will Announce Earnings of $0.50 Per Share

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Wall Street brokerages expect that Ball Co. (NYSE:BLL) will announce earnings of $0.50 per share for the current quarter, according to Zacks Investment Research . Five analysts have issued estimates for Ball’s earnings. The highest EPS estimate is $0.53 and the lowest is $0.47. Ball also reported earnings of $0.50 per share in the same quarter last year. The company is scheduled to report its next earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd.

On average, analysts expect that Ball will report full-year earnings of $2.61 per share for the current financial year, with EPS estimates ranging from $2.30 to $2.70. For the next year, analysts expect that the business will post earnings of $2.97 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $2.60 to $3.20. Zacks’ EPS calculations are an average based on a survey of analysts that follow Ball. Get Ball alerts:

Ball (NYSE:BLL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 31st. The industrial products company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $2.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.68 billion. Ball had a net margin of 3.90% and a return on equity of 20.08%. A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group lowered shares of Ball from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $58.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Morgan Stanley set a $55.00 target price on shares of Ball and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 5th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Ball from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.31.

In other Ball news, Chairman John A. Hayes sold 91,701 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.20, for a total transaction of $5,061,895.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 467,844 shares in the company, valued at $25,824,988.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link . Also, VP Scott C. Morrison sold 13,677 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.01, for a total transaction of $725,017.77. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 459,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,349,401.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 112,378 shares of company stock valued at $6,158,823. 2.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLL. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in Ball by 43.3% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 725,025 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $31,892,000 after buying an additional 219,129 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in Ball during the third quarter worth approximately $703,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ball by 4.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 125,026 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,500,000 after buying an additional 5,100 shares during the period. Aperio Group LLC grew its stake in Ball by 5.8% during the third quarter. Aperio Group LLC now owns 157,044 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,908,000 after buying an additional 8,612 shares during the period. Finally, Palisade Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Ball by 1.0% during the third quarter. Palisade Asset Management LLC now owns 276,475 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,162,000 after buying an additional 2,622 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.33% of the company’s stock.

NYSE:BLL opened at $54.13 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. The company has a market capitalization of $18.72 billion, a PE ratio of 24.60, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.84. Ball has a 1-year low of $34.71 and a 1-year high of $55.48.

Ball announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, January 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase 50,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the industrial products company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. Ball’s payout ratio is 18.18%.

About Ball

Ball Corp. provides metal packaging for beverages, foods and household products, and of aerospace and other technologies and services to commercial and governmental customers. It operates through the following business segments: Beverage Packaging, North and Central America; Beverage Packaging, South America; Beverage Packaging, Europe; Food and Aerosol Packaging; and Aerospace.

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