Ball Corp. Q1 Earnings Rise

(RTTNews) - Ball Corp. (BLL), a provider of packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products, said its net earnings for the first quarter rose to $93.5 million or $0.65 per share from last year's $72.0 million or $0.47 per share.

The results for the recent quarter included after tax charges of $23.8 million or $0.16 per share for business consolidation costs, debt extinguishment costs and other activities.

The company reported comparable earnings per share of $0.81 for the quarter. On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings per share of $0.67 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

For the first quarter, sales edged up to $2.006 billion from $1.991 billion. Thirteen analysts estimated revenues of $2.04 billion for the quarter.

John Hayes, chairman, president and CEO, said, " Stable beverage can volumes in North America, stronger than expected volumes in Europe and Brazil, as well as excellent plant and program performance, led to our strong first quarter results."

He added, " we remain confident in our ability to increase EVA dollar generation and achieve our long-term diluted earnings per share growth goal of 10 to 15 percent in 2014."