Bank of America Merrill Lynch Maintains Buy on Ball

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is out with its report today on Ball BLL, maintaining Buy. In its report, Bank of America Merrill Lynch writes, "This morning, Ball announced it has agreed to repurchase ~$100mn in stock in a private accelerated stock repurchase agreement. The repurchase will start today and reduce BLL's outstanding stock by ~2.8mn shares. Through 3Q11, BLL had already repurchased a net $381mn of stock. We believe today's announcement is indicative of BLL's strong free cash flow and strategy of returning value to shareholders, and supports our Buy rating." Shares of BLL closed Friday at $35.47, down 0.53% from Thursday's close.