BROOMFIELD, Colo.-
Packaging products manufacturer Ball Corp. on Thursday said its first-quarter net income nearly doubled as it benefited from acquisitions made last year. Its stock rose 7 percent in early trading.
For the quarter ending April 1, Ball reported net income of $81.2 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with $44.4 million, or 42 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2006.
Revenue increased to $1.69 billion from $1.37 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial forecast earnings of 57 cents a share.
The revenue and net income results set records for the company, which manufactures metal and plastic packaging products and owns an aerospace and technologies segment, said R. David Hoover, chairman, president and chief executive officer.
“Our strong performance in the first quarter makes us more confident that our full year results will show solid improvement over 2006, though we do not expect the first quarter percentage rate of improvement to continue over the remaining three quarters of the year,” he said in a statement.
For 2007, the company based in this Denver suburb has forecast free cash flow of at least $350 million and plans to use some of the money to buy back more than $175 million of stock during the year, said Raymond Seabrook, chief financial officer.
Ball’s stock rose $3.43 a share, or 7 percent, to $52.75 a share in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. It has traded between $34.16 a share and $50.78 a share in the past year.
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