Ball Reports Q3 2026 Results, Maintains 10%+ EPS Growth Outlook

Ball (NYSE: BALL ) reported third-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company's third-quarter earnings call has been provided below. This transcript is brought to you APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit for a consultation.

View the webcast at Summary Ball Corporation reported strong financial performance in Q3 2026, with global volumes up 4.7% year-over-year and comparable operating earnings growing 2.5%. Strategic investments in new facilities in Germany and India are expected to support long-term growth, driven by strong customer demand and an expanding global footprint. The company maintains a positive outlook for 2026, projecting 10%+ growth in comparable diluted EPS, supported by disciplined capital allocation and continued volume growth.

Operationally, Ball is focused on reducing complexity and improving productivity through standardization and the Ball business system, with ongoing integration of new plants in Hungary and Belgium. Management highlighted strong customer relationships and confidence in meeting future demand, with investments and operational improvements expected to drive value creation over the long term. Full Transcript OPERATOR Greetings and welcome to Ball's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode.

A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press Star 0 on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Brandon Pothoff, Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you, sir. You may begin. Brandon Pothoff (Head of Investor Relations) Good morning everyone. This is Ball's conference call regarding the company's third quarter 2026 results.

During this call we will reference our third quarter 2026 earnings presentation available through this webcast and our website investors.ball.com. The information provided during this call will contain forward-looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made today.

Some factors that could cause the results or outcomes to differ are described in the company's latest Form 10-K, other SEC filings, and in today's earnings release and earnings presentation. If you do not already have our earnings release, it is available on our website at ball.com. Information regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures may also be found in the Notes section of today's earnings release. In addition, this presentation and the release include a summary of non-comparable items as well as reconciliation of comparable net earnings and diluted earnings per share calculations.

I would now like to turn the call over to our CEO, Ron Lewis. Ron Lewis (Chief Executive Officer) Thank you, Brandon. Today I'm joined on our call by Dan Rabbitt, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I will provide some brief introductory remarks and discuss third quarter and year-to-date 2026 financial performance and our outlook for the remainder of 2026.

Dan will touch on key metrics and then we will finish up with closing comments and Q&A. We continue to make progress toward our long-term value creation goals. The fundamentals supporting our current performance and long-term opportunities remain strong. Packaged liquid volumes continue to grow and aluminum cans continue to gain share as customers and consumers increasingly value convenience, performance and sustainability.

These trends continue to support beverage can growth across each of our regions. Ball remains well positioned to benefit from our long-term customer partnerships, a well-contracted portfolio, EVA mindset and unmatched global footprint. Together these advantages have supported high utilization and volume growth above our long-term global target of 2 to 3%. We continue to see attractive opportunities to grow volumes and create value through disciplined EVA-accretive investments.

Our recently announced facilities in India and Germany are part of that strategy and will position us to support customer growth and drive continued volume and EVA growth through the end of the decade. Our financial discipline will continue to be front and center as we focus on driving shareholder value. A healthy balance sheet and capital expenditures, averaging depreciation and amortization over time, give us the opportunity to continue returning value to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Operationally, we remain focused on steady progress.

Standardization, cost discipline and the Ball business system are helping us to reduce complexity, improve productivity and build a more repeatable operating model as volumes grow. With attractive industry fundamentals, strong customer relationships, disciplined execution, financial strength and an operating system built for continuous improvement, Ball remains well positioned to deliver on our 2026 objectives and drive long-term value for shareholders. Our performance reflects the strength of our business and the disciplined execution underway across Ball. The strategy we have discussed in prior quarters remains clear and grounded in four strategic pillars.

First, we remain focused on executing in our core business. Second, we stay close to our customers and maximize the strength of our global network. Third, we continue to accelerate the substrate shift to aluminum and expand into targeted categories. Fourth, we manage complexity to our advantage.

We also recently announced leadership changes in two of our beverage businesses with Kerry Causey taking leadership of our North and Central America and Scott Vail taking leadership of our EMEA businesses. Both bring significant commercial and operational experience and I'm confident they'll continue strengthening our customer partnerships while driving disciplined execution across these businesses. Again this quarter, our people connected to our strategic pillars through the Ball business system.

They have done an excellent job supporting our customers and managing strong growth through the summer selling season in North America and EMEA while preparing for the upcoming summer selling season in South America. The combination of continued demand growth for aluminum packaging, our strategy and the Ball business system is designed to drive EVA dollar growth and support comparable diluted EPS growth of 10+% over the long term. These outcomes align how we are compensated with how we create value for shareholders. Our long-term financial framework remains clear.

We are focused on growing comparable operating earnings 4 to 6% through volume growth and operating leverage while consistently returning capital to shareholders through share repurchases. Together, those actions support our long-term target of delivering 10+% comparable diluted EPS growth. Growing EVA dollars requires disciplined investments that generate returns above our cost of capital. This approach has been central to our long-term value creation and should provide additional opportunities as volumes grow across our geographic footprint.

With that context, I would like to provide more detail on our investments in India and Germany starting with Germany. We continue to see strong growth in Europe including demand associated with a strategic energy drink customer. Our long-term partnership, contractual commitments and attractive EVA returns support our investment in a multi-line facility in Bahrus, Germany. We expect the facility to be ramping up in late 2028.

As we announced via press release last month, we will also be investing in a multi-line facility in Uttar Pradesh, India. The plant will further expand our manufacturing footprint in India and is expected to be operational in 2029. India continues to be one of Ball's most exciting growth markets and this investment reflects our confidence in the country's long-term economic potential and the continued growth of aluminum packaging. Turning to our third quarter results, we continue to build on the strong performance we discussed last quarter.

Global volumes improved 4.7% year over year with growth in each region reflecting continued momentum across our portfolio and keeping us on track to exceed the full-year volume outlook we outlined earlier this year. Comparable operating earnings grew 2.5% year over year supported by disciplined cost management, commercial performance and continued progress through the Ball business system, including record comparable operating earnings for both Ball as a whole and our EMEA business.

Even as we absorbed the previously discussed North American startup costs, comparable diluted EPS increased 6.8% reflecting comparable operating earnings performance and disciplined capital allocation. Our first nine-month performance reinforces our confidence in delivering 10+% comparable diluted EPS growth for the full year. We remain focused on shareholder returns and are on track to return at least $800 million to shareholders in 2026.

Operationally, we continue to advance our priorities including integrating the two plants we purchased in Hungary and Belgium to expand EMEA capacity and continuing to make progress on our Millersburg facility ramp-up which remains on track towards full capacity in 2027. Overall, this was a strong third quarter and first nine months, reinforcing the resilience of our business and our confidence in the 2026 framework. With that context, I'll let Dan walk you through the details of our third quarter financial performance and provide more color on our expectations for the remainder of 2026. Over to you, Dan.

Daniel Rabbitt (Chief Financial Officer) Thanks, Ron. I'll start by walking through our third quarter 2026 financial performance and provide additional context on the first nine months of the year and our expectations for the balance of the year. The business continues to perform well in the third quarter. Global aluminum shipments increased 4.7% and year to date we have grown our volumes 3.4%.

Our performance is supported by growth across each business unit and as Ron mentioned puts us ahead of our 2 to 3% global volume expectations. As Ron also noted, third quarter comparable operating earnings Increased 2.5% year over year and comparable diluted EPS increased 6.8%. On a year-to-date basis, comparable operating earnings increased 6.4% and comparable diluted EPS increased 14%. The quarterly and year-to-date performance remains consistent with the financial framework we laid out for 2020.

In North and Central America, volumes increased low single digits year over year, consistent with our expectation for full-year growth at the low end of our long-term 1% to 3% range. Demand remained constructive in energy drinks and non-alcoholic beverages. Segment comparable operating earnings declined 2.3% year over year as higher costs, including approximately $10 million of costs related to starting up Millersburg, were partially offset by favorable volume and price mix, primarily from metal pass-through timing. We now expect full-year costs related to starting up Millersburg to total approximately $25 million.

Adding further color on the fourth quarter, we expect the metal pass-through timing that we experienced in the third quarter to reverse in the fourth quarter, impacted by metal price declines and timing with our large customers who procure their own metal. In EMEA, volumes increased mid single digits year over year, supported by underlying demand and the contribution from the two plants we acquired in Hungary and Belgium, partially offset by last year's sale of our Saudi Arabian business. Third-quarter segment comparable operating earnings increased 3.7% and have increased 9.1% year to date.

Third-quarter results reflect higher volumes and favorable price mix, partially offset by higher costs. We also continue to make progress integrating the Hungary and Belgium facilities. For 2026, with the inclusion of these newly acquired plants, we continue to expect volume growth above the top end of our long-term 3% to 5% range. I also want to congratulate our EMEA team for delivering record-high quarterly comparable operating earnings.

Their consistent performance over many years set the foundation for this record quarter. I look forward to many more record quarters and years to come for this part of our business. In South America, volumes increased low double digits year over year as the business continues to see strong volume growth across the region. Third-quarter segment comparable operating earnings increased 19.5% and year to date have increased by 24.2%.

Third-quarter results reflect higher volumes and favorable price mix. Looking ahead, we expect volume growth in the middle of our long-term 4% to 6% range. Focusing on modeling details for 2026, as Ron noted, the resilience of our business and stability provided by our contractual pass-through mechanisms gives us confidence that we remain on track to deliver 10%+ comparable diluted EPS growth in 2026. CapEx is now expected to be $650 million, in line with GAAP D&A in 2026.

With the higher CapEx expectations, we anticipate free cash flow in the range of $900 million. Our 2026 full-year effective tax rate on comparable earnings is expected to be slightly above 23%. Interest expense is expected to be in the range of $310 million. Reported adjusted corporate undistributed costs recorded in other non-reportable are expected to be in the range of $165 million.

We anticipate year-end 2026 net debt to comparable EBITDA to be 2.7 times, and we will repurchase at least $600 million of shares, which will bring our total capital return to shareholders to approximately $800 million. And last week Ball's board declared its quarterly cash dividend. With that, I'll turn it back to Ron. Ron Lewis (Chief Executive Officer) Thanks, Dan.

To close, Ball is well positioned to win. Packaged liquid volumes continue to grow, aluminum cans continue to gain share, and our strong customer partnerships and unmatched global footprint position us to capture that growth and deliver value to our customers and shareholders. We are focused on disciplined execution across our business through volume growth, operating leverage, and the Ball Business System. Our long-term objective is to grow comparable operating earnings 4% to 6% annually.

At the same time, our EVA mindset guides how we invest in our business and return capital to shareholders through consistent share repurchases. Together, these drivers support our long-term target of delivering 10%+ comparable diluted EPS growth. Our investments in Germany and India are examples of that approach. They are supported by long-term customer demand and attractive returns and will position us to drive continued volume and EVA growth through the end of the decade.

We have attractive industry fundamentals, strong customer relationships, a healthy balance sheet, and meaningful opportunities to improve how we operate. We remain confident in our 2026 outlook and in our ability to create value for our shareholders over the long term. Before we open the call for questions, I want to thank our employees around the world. Their disciplined execution, commitment to our customers, and focus on continuous improvement are what make this performance possible.

With that, Dan and I will be happy to take your questions. OPERATOR Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad.

A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please, while we poll for questions.

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Ghansham Panjabi with Baird. Please proceed with your question. Ghansham Panjabi (Analyst at Baird) Thank you, operator.

Good morning, everybody. Ron, first off on the higher inflation dynamic impacting your customers from an operating cost standpoint—obviously everyone in the supply chain, including you—how do you think that evolves as it relates to volumes and their focus on volumes versus price? Obviously it hasn't impacted you so far this year, but certainly costs are up quite a bit sequentially in context of the consumer already struggling with affordability. So how do you see that netting out?

Ron Lewis (Chief Executive Officer) Hi, Ghansham, thanks for the question. I hope you're well. What I would say is we're not macroeconomists here. The can is winning.

It wins in all of our geographies, as evidenced by really strong volume growth again this quarter and this year on top of a really strong year last year. The can has a number of attributes: it's incredibly robust in the supply chain, it sells well as a single package, and it delivers great value to consumers on behalf of our customers in a multipack format. So again, it continues to win and it continues to deliver great value to consumers. We think really positively about the opportunity for the can to continue to win regardless of the macroeconomic backdrop.

Ghansham Panjabi (Analyst at Baird) And on that, it seems like every major company is focusing on introducing ready-to-drink cocktails and so on and so forth. Can you share your thoughts on whether you think that category could be a needle mover for the industry, and also how you are positioning to capitalize on that? Thank you. Ron Lewis (Chief Executive Officer) Thanks, Ghansham.

I would say we love all of our customers the same. We love when they sell their products in our cans.