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What happened
Shares of glass container company Owens-Illinois Inc. (OI 0.71%) jumped as much as 14.4% in early trading Wednesday after the company reported third-quarter earnings. At 12:30 p.m. EDT, the stock was still up 13.2%.
So what
Net sales were up 9% to $1.7 billion, due in part to the acquisition of Vitro's food and beverage business. Organically, sales were only up 2%. Earnings from continuing operations jumped from $0.57 a year ago to $0.68 per share, which surpassed Wall Street's $0.66-per-share estimate.
The North American market was the highlight for Owens-Illinois with segment operating profit up 30% from a year ago to $79 million. Latin America's segment operating profit was also up 45% to $74 million, helping offset flat results in Europe and Asia Pacific.
Now what
Operations continue to slowly improve, helped by acquisitions. And management is expecting full-year earnings to come in at $2.27 to $2.32 per share, which is in line with Wall Street's expectations. And after the earnings beat last quarter, there's hope full-year results will top expectations as well.
With shares trading at just 8.4 times the top end of full-year results, there's very good value in a business that should be very consistent in the long term. And if shares pull back from today's big gain, I think it would be a nice entry point for investors with the long haul in mind.
