Packaging manufacturer Ball (NYSE: BLL) will be announcing earnings results tomorrow before market open. Here’s what to look for.
Ball missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 1.9% last quarter, reporting revenues of $2.88 billion, down 15.4% year on year. It was a disappointing quarter for the company, with a significant miss of analysts’ adjusted operating income estimates and a miss of analysts’ organic revenue estimates.
Is Ball a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.
This quarter, analysts are expecting Ball’s revenue to grow 1% year on year to $2.90 billion, a reversal from the 17.6% decrease it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.70 per share.
Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings.
Looking at Ball’s peers in the industrial packaging segment, some have already reported their Q1 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Crown Holdings delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 3.7%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.5%, and Packaging Corporation of America reported revenues up 8.2%, topping estimates by 1.5%. Crown Holdings traded up 8% following the results while Packaging Corporation of America was down 1.1%.
Read our full analysis of Crown Holdings’s results here and Packaging Corporation of America’s results here.
There has been positive sentiment among investors in the industrial packaging segment, with share prices up 13% on average over the last month. Ball is up 9.5% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $59.49 (compared to the current share price of $51.66).
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