Earnings and Dividends Per Share

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2015

Earnings and Dividends Per Share

Earnings and Dividends Per Share

15.Earnings and Dividends Per Share

	Three Months Ended March 31,
($ in millions, except per share amounts; shares in thousands)	2015		2014
Net earnings attributable to Ball Corporation	$	20.7	$	93.5
Basic weighted average common shares	137,086		140,405
Effect of dilutive securities	3,990		3,653
Weighted average shares applicable to diluted earnings per share	141,076		144,058
Per basic share	$	0.15	$	0.67
Per diluted share	$	0.15	$	0.65

Certain outstanding options were excluded from the diluted earnings per share calculation because they were anti-dilutive (i.e., the sum of the assumed exercise proceeds, including the unrecognized compensation and windfall tax benefits, exceeded the average closing stock price for the period). The options excluded totaled 1.2 million and 1.4 million in the three months ended March 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The company declared and paid dividends of $0.13 per share in the first quarters of both 2015 and 2014.