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Largest producer of containerboard and corrugated packaging in North America, also making pulp.
Largest producer of containerboard and corrugated packaging in North America, also making pulp.
Makes containerboard and converts it to corrugated boxes in its own plants, so volumes and box prices set results, and has been shrinking outside that core by selling off its printing-paper and other businesses. The 2025 purchase of DS Smith added a large European packaging business and a London listing alongside New York.
Moat: narrow (scale, distribution). Scale in mills and box plants across North America gives cost and logistics advantages in a largely commoditized market.
Headquarters: Memphis, Tennessee, United States · Founded: 1898 · Employees: 62,602
Size International Paper (IP) is a United States Materials company (Pulp & Paper) with a market value of $18.3B, the 521st largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $34.53 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 6.1%, against +4.1% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 4th highest of 7 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 3.0% over the last twelve months (peer median -1.1%); the operating margin is 2.8% (peer median 9.9%).
Valuation It trades at 15.8× forward earnings against a peer median of 17.8× (2nd cheapest of 7).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 26% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +20 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 5.8 points below its cost of capital (8.1% WACC).
Credit International Paper has 7 bonds outstanding ($3.97B), rated BBB by the agencies and trading like BBB at a weighted spread of 111 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 8.8% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 4 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $24.2B | $23.6B | $15.8B | $18.9B | $21.2B |
| Revenue growth | — | +49% | -16% | -11% | — |
| Gross profit | $5.14B | $5.32B | $3.63B | $3.85B | $4.95B |
| EBITDA | $2.78B | $3.19B | $2.11B | $2.66B | $2.83B |
| Net income | -$3.45B | -$3.52B | $557M | $302M | $1.74B |
| Free cash flow | $75.0M | -$159M | $757M | $692M | $1.24B |
| Capital expenditure | $2.31B | $1.86B | $921M | $1.14B | $931M |
| Total debt | $10.1B | $12.7B | $8.09B | $8.17B | $8.12B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Paper IP | $18.3B | +6% | +3% | 3% | 15.8× | 26.4% |
| Smurfit Westrock SW | $23.1B | +7% | +1% | 5% | 15.1× | 13.5% |
| Packaging Corporation of America PKG | $22.2B | +12% | +12% | 13% | 17.8× | 4.3% |
| Mondi MNDI.L | $4.69B | +5% | +5% | 4% | 36.1× | 15.4% |
| Graphic Packaging GPK | $3.31B | +5% | 0% | 6% | 12.3× | 5.0% |
| Sonoco Products SON | $4.99B | -2% | +4% | 10% | 9.0× | -1.9% |
| Cascades CAS.TO | $1.15B | +49% | +1% | 5% | 9.2× | -1.9% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | IP | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +8.3% | +3.7% | 3rd highest of 7 |
| 6-month return | +6.1% | +4.1% | 4th highest of 7 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -29.6% | -17.4% | lowest of 7 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +3.0% | -1.1% | 3rd highest of 7 |
| Operating margin | 2.8% | 9.9% | lowest of 7 |
| Forward P/E | 15.8× | 17.8× | 2nd cheapest of 7 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 26.4% | 6.1% | 2nd most demanding of 6 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.1% | +4.9% | 3rd highest of 6 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +20.3 pp | +1.5 pp | 2nd most demanding of 6 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -5.8 pp | -1.4 pp | lowest of 7 |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.9× | 11.9× | 2nd cheapest of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.4× | 2.4× | 3rd most indebted of 6 |
| Bond spread | 111 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Paper IP | United States | $18.3B | +6% | +3% | 3% | 15.8× | 26.4% | +6.1% |
| Avery Dennison AVY | United States | $14.1B | +14% | +7% | 13% | 17.4× | 1.9% | +4.9% |
| UPM-Kymmene UPM.HE | Finland | $13.3B | -11% | -6% | 8% | 18.2× | 6.1% | +2.3% |
| Suzano S.A. Sponsored ADR SUZ | United States | $12.0B | +9% | +1% | 19% | 16.9× | 3.2% | +8.7% |
| Svenska Cellulosa AB SCA SCA-A.ST | Sweden | $8.72B | +21% | -3% | 6% | 33.7× | 30.3% | +2.1% |
| Shandong Sunpaper 002078.SZ | China | $6.02B | -4% | +9% | 11% | 10.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Holmen HOLM-A.ST | Sweden | $4.73B | -1% | -5% | 9% | 22.2× | 7.7% | +6.2% |
International Paper has 7 bonds outstanding with $3.97B face value. The agencies rate it BBB; its bonds trade like BBB. Weighted yield 6.28%, a spread of 111 bp over government bonds.