Ball
BALL on NYSE. Ball sells aluminum cans and bottles to beverage and consumer goods companies. Market value $15.1bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.
The company doesn't report operating profit, so we work it out from pre-tax profit and interest.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
See Materials stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $5.44 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 14.7 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 9 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 62 of 100. Price score: 91 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$57.43 a share, 28% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $44.83 to $68.29.
Dividend: 1.4% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $13.8bn | $13.4bn | $12.1bn | $11.8bn | $13.2bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 9.3% | 9.1% | 10.6% | 7.0% | 11.0% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 2.13 | 2.59 | 2.27 | 0.97 | 1.29 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.31bn | 0.32bn | 0.30bn | 0.27bn | 0.26bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive3 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 8 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt1.29× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 2.2% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 16% fewer since 2021
The quarter to June 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $4 billion last quarter, up 20% on a year ago.
- Profit: $221 million, up 4% on a year ago.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $827 million, up from $376 million.
- 4% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $6.7 billion more than cash, about the same as a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $3.1bn |
| December 2024 | $2.9bn |
| March 2025 | $3.1bn |
| June 2025 | $3.3bn |
| September 2025 | $3.4bn |
| December 2025 | $3.3bn |
| March 2026 | $3.6bn |
| June 2026 | $4.0bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| September 2024 | $197m |
| December 2024 | -$32m |
| March 2025 | $179m |
| June 2025 | $212m |
| September 2025 | $321m |
| December 2025 | $200m |
| March 2026 | $205m |
| June 2026 | $221m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- 3 November 2026
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 19 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 3 November 2026
Who owns it
6 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 7 last quarter. 801 funds in all.
- First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners
- Value
- $128m
- Share of fund
- 0.3%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston PartnersBoston Partners team | $548m | 0.5% | Added |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $128m | 0.3% | |
| LSV Asset ManagementJosef Lakonishok | $29m | <0.1% | Added |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $18m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Heartland AdvisorsBill Nasgovitz | $7m | 0.3% | Cut |
| Royce & AssociatesChuck Royce | $734,448 | <0.1% | Added |
Sold out this quarter
- AppaloosaDavid TepperSold out
Largest holders overall
- BlackRock$1.3bnCut
- Vanguard Capital Management$1.1bn
- State Street$837mAdded
- Price T Rowe Associates$768mCut
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$719m
- Boston Partners$548mAdded
- JPMorgan Chase$460mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$441m
- Morgan Stanley$430mCut
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$407mAdded
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
2 investors own more than 5%.
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor7.5%Since 31 March 2026
- STATE STREET CORPORATIONPassive investor5.0%Since 30 June 2026
- PARNASSUS INVESTMENTS, LLCPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 17 April 2025
- T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc.Passive investorSold down below 5%Since 31 March 2025
- T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.Passive investorSold down below 5%Since 30 June 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 7.5% | 31 March 2026 | |
STATE STREET CORPORATION Passive investor | 5.0% | 30 June 2026 | |
PARNASSUS INVESTMENTS, LLC Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 17 April 2025 | |
T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Inc. Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 31 March 2025 | |
T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 30 June 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
In the last 12 months, 1 insider bought $100,055 of shares on the open market. 4 sold $2m.
- Glew MandySVP and President, EMEASold
- Date
- 25 August 2026
- Shares
- 5,626
- Price
- $63.80
- Value
- $358,933
- Goodwin DeronVP, Global Head of TreasurySold
- Date
- 11 August 2026
- Shares
- 8,809
- Price
- $63.03
- Value
- $555,206
- Villatoro FauzeSVP & President South AmericaBought
- Date
- 4 March 2026
- Shares
- 1,551
- Price
- $64.51
- Value
- $100,055
- Pitre KathleenSVP & President NCASold
- Date
- 2 March 2026
- Shares
- 10,660
- Price
- $66.63
- Value
- $710,276
- Carey Nate CVice President & ControllerSold
- Date
- 5 February 2026
- Shares
- 10,718
- Price
- $66.45
- Value
- $712,211
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 August 2026 | Glew Mandy SVP and President, EMEA | Sold | 5,626 | $63.80 | $358,933 |
| 11 August 2026 | Goodwin Deron VP, Global Head of Treasury | Sold | 8,809 | $63.03 | $555,206 |
| 4 March 2026 | Villatoro Fauze SVP & President South America | Bought | 1,551 | $64.51 | $100,055 |
| 2 March 2026 | Pitre Kathleen SVP & President NCA | Sold | 10,660 | $66.63 | $710,276 |
| 5 February 2026 | Carey Nate C Vice President & Controller | Sold | 10,718 | $66.45 | $712,211 |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 19 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 4 Aug 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.