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

Ball Co. (NYSE:BALL) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.20 per share on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd.

Ball has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.1% per year over the last three years. Ball has a dividend payout ratio of 22.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Ball to earn $3.55 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 22.5%.

Ball Price Performance

NYSE:BALL opened at $62.16 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 0.90. Ball has a 12-month low of $54.06 and a 12-month high of $71.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50-day moving average is $63.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.09.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on BALL shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Ball in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Baird R W raised shares of Ball from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 4th. UBS Group raised their target price on Ball from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded Ball from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.75.

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.