Financial Analysis: Ball (BALL) versus Its Rivals

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Ball and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ball	1	4	8	0	2.54
Ball Competitors	381	2318	3365	84	2.51

Ball currently has a consensus target price of $71.69, suggesting a potential upside of 12.95%. As a group, “Containers & Packaging” companies have a potential upside of 29.50%. Given Ball’s rivals higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ball has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Volatility and Risk

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

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ball and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ball	$13.16 billion	$912.00 million	17.98
Ball Competitors	$8.03 billion	$208.36 million	14.33

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.

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 -106.7% 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.

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	-28.76%	-31.82%	2.15%

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 hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Ball beats its rivals 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.