Ball earnings, revenue rise in second quarter

BROOMFIELD — Second-quarter financial figures reported Thursday by Broomfield-based Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) fell below Wall Street analysts’ prediction for earnings but exceeded their forecast for revenue.

Ball, famous for metal and glass packaging and as the parent of Boulder-based Ball Aerospace & Technologies, reported second-quarter net income of $160.4 million, or$1.13 per share, compared with $153.1 million, or $1.07 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2014.

The company reported that earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 89 cents per share, below the 94-cent average estimate from five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research. However, Ball’s reported revenue of $2.17 billion in the period surpassed the forecasters’ prediction of $2.12 billion.

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Second-quarter sales of $2.2 billion were slightly less than the $2.3 billion reported in the second quarter of 2014.

For the six months of 2015, net earnings were $181.1 million, or $1.28 per diluted share, on sales of $4.1 billion, compared with $246.6 million, or $1.72 per diluted share, on sales of $4.3 billion in the first six months of 2014.

Aerospace and Technologies reported operating earnings of $19.5 million on sales of $230.2 million, compared with $24.8 million on sales of $241.1 million in the second quarter of 2014. For the first six months, comparable segment operating earnings were $39.5 million on sales of $445 million, compared with $48.9 million on sales of $461.8 million during the same period last year. Backlog at the end of the quarter was $641.3 million.

John A. Hayes, Ball’s president, chairman and chief executive, noted in a prepared statement that a solid volume demand for metal beverage containers in Europe and for aerosol cans globally “were unable to fully offset foreign currency translation, project start-up costs and aluminum premium headwinds.”

It’s been an eventful July for Ball Corp. Earlier this month, and after traveling for nearly a decade through space, Ball’s Ralph instrument, one of three cameras aboard the New Horizons mission, began to return images of Pluto’s surface and geological structure. Earlier this week, even as Ball closed a plant in Bristol, Va., at the cost of 230 jobs, its shareholders were approving a share-issuance proposal related to the one-third equity portion of the purchase price for United Kingdom-based rival Rexam Plc. Ball continues to work to secure the regulatory approvals it needs to complete acquisition of Rexam, Hayes said.

Ball’s stock was trading at $69.49 near Thursday’s close, up 75 cents for the day. Ball shares have climbed roughly 1 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has risen slightly more than 2 percent. The stock has climbed 10 percent in the past 12 months.