Analyzing Ball (BALL) & Its Peers

Ball (NYSE:BALL) is one of 70 publicly-traded companies in the “Containers & Packaging” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Ball to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Ball and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ball	6.61%	18.76%	5.35%
Ball Competitors	-28.76%	-31.82%	2.15%

Dividends

Ball pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Ball pays out 22.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Containers & Packaging” companies pay a dividend yield of 5.1% and pay out -106.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Ball lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Ball and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ball	1	4	8	0	2.54
Ball Competitors	381	2318	3367	84	2.51

Ball currently has a consensus price target of $71.69, indicating a potential upside of 12.95%. As a group, “Containers & Packaging” companies have a potential upside of 29.49%. Given Ball’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Ball has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ball and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ball	$13.16 billion	$912.00 million	17.98
Ball Competitors	$8.01 billion	$208.36 million	14.44

Ball has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Ball is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

86.5% of Ball shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.4% of shares of all “Containers & Packaging” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ball shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.5% of shares of all “Containers & Packaging” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Ball has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ball’s competitors have a beta of 0.80, meaning that their average stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ball beats its competitors on 10 of the 15 factors compared.

Ball Company Profile

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. It also manufactures and sells extruded aluminum aerosol containers, recloseable aluminum bottles, aluminum cups, and aluminum slugs. Ball Corporation was founded in 1880 and is headquartered in Westminster, Colorado.