Packaging manufacturer Ball (NYSE: BLL) will be reporting earnings this Tuesday morning. Here’s what to look for.

Ball beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 7% last quarter, reporting revenues of $3.34 billion, up 12.8% year on year. It was an exceptional quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts’ organic revenue estimates and an impressive beat of analysts’ revenue estimates.

Is Ball a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Ball’s revenue to grow 8.2% year on year to $3.34 billion, a reversal from the 13.7% decrease it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $1.02 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Ball has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates six times over the last two years.

Looking at Ball’s peers in the industrial packaging segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Crown Holdings delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 4.2%, beating analysts’ expectations by 1.5%, and Silgan Holdings reported revenues up 15.1%, topping estimates by 3.8%. Crown Holdings traded up 5.4% following the results while Silgan Holdings was down 14.5%.

Read our full analysis of Crown Holdings’s results here and Silgan Holdings’s results here.

Investors in the industrial packaging segment have had steady hands going into earnings, with share prices flat over the last month. Ball is down 5.3% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $61.23 (compared to the current share price of $47).

P.S. In tech investing, "Gorillas" are the rare companies that dominate their markets—like Microsoft and Apple did decades ago. Today, the next Gorilla is emerging in AI-powered enterprise software. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.

StockStory is growing and hiring equity analyst and marketing roles. Are you a 0 to 1 builder passionate about the markets and AI? See the open roles here.