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 competitors? We will compare Ball to similar businesses based on the strength of its analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends and risk.

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, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

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%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Ball and its competitors, 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	3367	84	2.51

Ball presently has a consensus price target of $71.69, suggesting 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ball and its competitors gross 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	$8.00 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.

Risk and Volatility

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.

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 -104.9% 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.

Summary

Ball beats its competitors 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.