By Adriano Marchese
Ball Corp. reported a loss in the fourth quarter, while sales edged lower on the back of softer beverage packaging momentum in North and Central America.
The aluminum packaging company on Tuesday posted a net loss of $32 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with a profit of $154 million, or 49 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago.
Comparable earnings, an adjusted figure, were 84 cents a share. According to FactSet, analysts were expecting 80 cents a share.
Sales fell to $2.88 billion from $2.9 billion. The company noted that the sales figure doesn't include its former aerospace business, the sale of which it completed a year ago.
Ball's packaging business in North and Central America saw a decline in revenue, to $1.29 billion in the quarter from $1.38 billion, due largely to lower volume and lower price and mix partially but were lifted slightly by the contractual pass through of lower aluminum costs for the year.
In the EMEA region, sales in the beverage packaging segment rose to $826 million from $739 million, while in South America, sales fell to $563 million from $616 million.
Looking ahead to 2025, Ball's chief financial officer Howard Yu said that it expects to deliver over 10% of comparable earnings per share growth.
In 2024, comparable earnings per share came to $3.17, and analysts polled on FactSet expect a growth to $3.53.
Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 04, 2025 06:39 ET (11:39 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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