Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 2026
Ball Corp (BALL)
A forensic read on Ball Corp built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
3.9
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
17.7
P / E (ttm)
16.8%
ROE
$16.5B
Market cap
1.27%
Dividend yield
11.6%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Ball Corp earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 3.9, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by cash conversion.
What the filings flag
0.58×
FY2023–FY2025
Cash conversion.Over FY2023–FY2025, operating cash flow was 0.58× cumulative net income. Reported profit is not turning into cash. The shortfall is profit tied up in working capital rather than collected — the accrual and receivables lines below show where.
196% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $1.5B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 196% of free cash flow. More than free cash flow generated — and beyond operating cash too, so the extra is coming from debt or cash reserves, which isn't sustainable indefinitely. Counting the $28M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 199%.
8.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 8.9% in the latest fiscal year and rising from 7% — around its ~9% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral.
$62M
FY2020–FY2020
Goodwill impairments.Took $62M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2020 ($62M)) — about 11% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
-10%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~10% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies. Measured on total dividend dollars rather than per share: the reported share count steps sharply around FY2015, a stock-split seam between filing vintages rather than a change in the payout, and a split leaves the dollars paid untouched.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$13.16B
Revenue Growth YoY+11.6%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)-0.5%
Net Margin6.9%
Free Cash Flow$788.0M
Return on Equity16.8%
Debt / Equity0.00x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Ball Corp's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?