Analyzing Ball (BALL) and The Competition

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

Profitability

This table compares Ball and its rivals’ 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	-29.40%	-33.58%	1.99%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Ball and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ball	1	4	8	0	2.54
Ball Competitors	387	2334	3393	84	2.51

Ball presently has a consensus target price of $71.69, suggesting a potential upside of 14.27%. As a group, “Containers & Packaging” companies have a potential upside of 35.87%. Given Ball’s rivals higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ball has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ball	$13.16 billion	$912.00 million	17.77
Ball Competitors	$6.07 billion	$200.41 million	12.60

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

Risk and Volatility

Ball has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ball’s rivals have a beta of 0.77, suggesting that their average stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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 4.9% and pay out -79.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Ball lags its rivals as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Summary

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

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. 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.