tickdelta
Sign in

Tickdelta is free for now. Sign up and get Pro free

← Screener

BALLBall Corporation

Materials · Packaging · NYSE
Compare with peers → Embed

When the SEC's staff reviews a filing, it writes to the company with numbered questions, and the company answers each one in a letter. SEC publishes the exchange once the review is over, at least 20 business days later. Below: what the staff asked BALL, and the company's answer to each question, quoted from the letters. A question is not an accusation; most reviews end with the company adding detail to its next filing.

Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022

2023-11-02 to 2023-11-09 · 1 question · 1 letter from the SEC, 1 from the company
Review closed 2023-11-09
SegmentsResults discussion (MD&A)
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations · Results of operations, page 23
SEC asked
We note your discussion of your results of operations, starting on page 23, that describe multiple factors that impacted these line items in each respective reporting period. For example, your Cost of Sales discussion describes the increase year-over-year is primarily due to higher manufacturing costs, general inflationary cost pressures and global supply chain transportation disruptions but does not quantify the
Rest of the question

component impact of each factor. In addition, we noted your Selling, General and Administrative, and Segment Results narratives include a partially offsetting driver without related quantification. In future filings, please revise to further describe material changes to a line item in both quantitative and qualitative terms for each disclosed component, including the impact of offsetting factors. Refer to Item 303(b) of Regulation S-K.

BALL answered
We understand that Item 303(b) of Regulation S-K requires registrants to describe the underlying reasons for material changes from period-to-period in one or more line items, including offsetting amounts, on a quantitative and qualitative basis in our annual filings. We acknowledge that in our current filings we have qualitatively explained these material factors, among others.
Rest of the answer

In future filings we will add additional quantification of the factors driving material changes from period-to-period for associated line items in order to better align with the requirements within Item 303(b) of Regulation S-K. We will quantify these factors, including offsetting amounts, when material, and continue to provide appropriate qualitative discussion of the remaining factors that are not material but are significant. This also aligns with our approach described in Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of our Form 10-K, stating we will qualitatively describe factors that did not have a material impact, but that are significant to understand the results.

As requested in the Staff’s comment letter, Ball acknowledges the following:

• Ball is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in the filing discussed herein;

• Staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to Staff comments do not foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing; and

• Ball may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities laws of the United States.

If you have additional questions or require any additional information with respect to the above-referenced filing or this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me at (303) 460-2420.

Read in the reply ↗
In its next report

First report after the company's reply of 2023-11-08: 10-K filed 2024-02-20 ↗, against the 10-K filed 2023-02-21 ↗.

Tickdelta does not hold the text of both reports, so they are not compared here.

Also in this review: closing letter, 2023-11-09

Form 10-K for the Year Ended December 31, 2019

2020-04-01 to 2020-04-09 · 2 questions · 1 letter from the SEC, 1 from the company
Review closed 2020-04-09
Liquidity and cashInventory
Financial Condition, Liquidity and Capital Resources · Cash Flows and Capital Expenditures, page 28
SEC asked (1)
Although the header indicates a discussion of cash flows and capital expenditures, we note no discussion of the changes in cash flows from investing and financing activities. Please revise to include detail of the nature of the cash flows in investing and financing activities including changes from year to year. Financial Statements Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements 1.
Rest of the question

Critical and Significant Accounting Policies

BALL answered
Our approach in the liquidity sections of our filings has been to highlight activity that is not readily available from the face of the cash flow statement. Within the financial condition, liquidity and capital resources section, we provide additional information on debt borrowings/repayments and share repurchases, which typically comprise the majority of our financing activities. In future filings, we will add additional narrative to help readers better understand trends in our capital expenditure and other investing activities year on year.
Rest of the answer

For 2019, this narrative would read as follows:

“Cash outflows from investing activities increased by $216 million from $206 million in 2018 to $422 million in 2019. This predominantly reflected the net effect of lower cash proceeds from business dispositions of $379 million and a $218 million reduction in capital expenditures as large growth projects in our North American and European beverage packaging facilities were completed.

Cash outflows from financing activities decreased by $994 million from $1,040 million in 2018 to $46 million in 2019. The primary reason for the lower outflows was the issuance of an aggregate €1.3 billion of senior notes in November 2019, partially offset by increased net share repurchases of $234 million. Further details of financing activities are provided below.”

Financial Statements

Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements

1. Critical and Significant Accounting Policies

Read in the reply ↗
In its next report

First report after the company's reply of 2020-04-08: 10-Q filed 2020-05-08 ↗, against the 10-Q filed 2019-11-01 ↗.

Tickdelta does not hold the text of both reports, so they are not compared here.

Significant Accounting Policies · Inventories, page 45
SEC asked (2)
We note your disclosure that inventories are carried at the lower of cost or market. Please tell us how this is consistent with ASC 330-10-35-1B which indicates that inventories should be valued at the lower of cost or net realizable value.
BALL answered
We used the term “market” in relation to the valuation of inventories with the intention of it being synonymous with “net realizable value.” We confirm that our accounting policy is in compliance with ASC 330-10-35-1B and will revise the wording in future filings to the following:

“Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value using either the first-in, first-out (FIFO) cost method of accounting or the average cost method.
Rest of the answer

Inventory cost is calculated for each inventory component taking into consideration the appropriate cost factors including fixed and variable overhead, material price volatility and production levels.”

As requested in the Staff’s comment letter, Ball acknowledges the following:

·

Ball is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in the filing discussed herein;

Staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to Staff comments do not foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing; and

Ball may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities laws of the United States.

If you have additional questions or require any additional information with respect to the above-referenced filing or this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me at (303) 460-2191.

Read in the reply ↗

Also in this review: closing letter, 2020-04-09

From the SEC's correspondence on EDGAR: staff letters (form UPLOAD) and company letters (form CORRESP), 6 letters filed since 2020-04-01. Questions and answers are matched by their numbers; topics come from words in each question. The reports are compared word for word (same form, before the first SEC letter against the first report after the company's reply). No AI.

Next in Owners and insiders Insider trades →

Work on BALL in a spreadsheet: Excel workbook (a sheet per section, ten years by column, charts, links to the filings) · CSV. For a Google Sheet that stays up to date, paste =IMPORTDATA("https://tickdelta.com/company/BALL/export.csv") into a cell.