Ball (BALL) Competitors

Smurfit Westrock (NYSE:SW) and Ball (NYSE:BALL) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership and profitability.

Is SW or BALL more profitable?

Ball has a net margin of 33.98% compared to Smurfit Westrock's net margin of 0.63%. Ball's return on equity of 16.17% beat Smurfit Westrock's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Smurfit Westrock	0.63%	6.16%	2.42%
Ball	33.98%	16.17%	5.81%

Does the media refer more to SW or BALL?

In the previous week, Ball had 16 more articles in the media than Smurfit Westrock. MarketBeat recorded 40 mentions for Ball and 24 mentions for Smurfit Westrock. Smurfit Westrock's average media sentiment score of 1.07 beat Ball's score of 0.68 indicating that Smurfit Westrock is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Smurfit Westrock	15 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Ball	18 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	13 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has higher earnings and valuation, SW or BALL?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Smurfit Westrock	$21.11B	1.02	$319M	$0.55	75.29
Ball	$11.80B	1.17	$4.01B	$12.66	3.86

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of SW or BALL?

83.4% of Smurfit Westrock shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.5% of Ball shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Smurfit Westrock shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Ball shares are held by company 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.

Which has more volatility & risk, SW or BALL?

Smurfit Westrock has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Ball has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate SW or BALL?

Smurfit Westrock presently has a consensus target price of $60.00, indicating a potential upside of 44.89%. Ball has a consensus target price of $63.20, indicating a potential upside of 29.48%. Given Smurfit Westrock's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Smurfit Westrock is more favorable than Ball.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Smurfit Westrock	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
Ball	1 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.55

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SW or BALL?

Ball received 12 more outperform votes than Smurfit Westrock when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 73.68% of users gave Smurfit Westrock an outperform vote while only 24.30% of users gave Ball an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Smurfit Westrock	Outperform Votes 14 73.68%	Underperform Votes 5 26.32%
Ball	Outperform Votes 26 24.30%	Underperform Votes 81 75.70%

Is SW or BALL a better dividend stock?

Smurfit Westrock pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Ball pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Smurfit Westrock pays out 312.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ball pays out 6.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Ball beats Smurfit Westrock on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.