Comparing TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS) and Ball (NYSE:BALL)

TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS) and Ball (NYSE:BALL) are both materials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

99.4% of TriMas shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.5% of Ball shares are held by institutional investors. 17.5% of TriMas shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Ball shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares TriMas and Ball”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TriMas	$1.04 billion	1.33	$120.14 million	$24.03	1.61
Ball	$13.16 billion	1.21	$912.00 million	$3.53	16.98

Ball has higher revenue and earnings than TriMas. TriMas is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ball, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for TriMas and Ball, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TriMas	0	1	3	0	2.75
Ball	1	3	9	0	2.62

TriMas currently has a consensus price target of $41.50, indicating a potential upside of 7.24%. Ball has a consensus price target of $71.69, indicating a potential upside of 19.58%. Given Ball’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ball is more favorable than TriMas.

Profitability

This table compares TriMas and Ball’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TriMas	104.22%	6.41%	3.71%
Ball	6.61%	18.76%	5.35%

Dividends

TriMas pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Ball pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. TriMas pays out 0.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ball pays out 22.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Risk & Volatility

TriMas has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ball has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ball beats TriMas on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TriMas

TriMas Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of products for consumer products, aerospace, and industrial markets worldwide. The company operates through Packaging, Aerospace, and Specialty Products segments. The Packaging segment offers dispensing products, such as foaming and sanitizer pumps, lotion and hand soap pumps, beverage dispensers, perfume sprayers, and nasal and trigger sprayers; polymeric and steel caps and closures comprising food lids, flip-top and beverage closures, child resistance caps, drum and pail closures, and flexible spouts; polymeric jar products; integrated dispensers; bag-in-box products; and consumable vascular delivery and diagnostic test components under the Rieke, Taplast, Affaba & Ferrari, Intertech, Omega, and Rapak brands. The Aerospace segment provides fasteners, collars, blind bolts, rivets, ducting, and connectors for air management systems, and other highly-machined parts and components to original equipment manufacturers, supply chain distributors, and tier one suppliers, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO)/aftermarket providers; and military and defense aerospace applications and platforms under the Monogram Aerospace Fasteners, Allfast Fastening Systems, Mac Fasteners, TFI Aerospace, RSA Engineered Products, and Martinic Engineering brands. The Specialty Products segment offers steel cylinders for use in the transportation, storage, and dispensing of compressed gases under the Norris Cylinder brand; natural gas powered wellhead engines, compressors, and replacement parts for oil and natural gas production, and other industrial and commercial markets under the Arrow brand; and spare parts for various industrial engines. It sells its products through a direct sales force, third-party agents, and distributors. TriMas Corporation was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

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.