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US producer of containerboard and corrugated packaging, plus specialty and printing/office papers.
US producer of containerboard and corrugated packaging, plus specialty and printing/office papers.
Makes containerboard and converts much of it into corrugated boxes in its own plants, selling the rest to other box makers, so profit follows box demand and containerboard prices. The printing and office paper unit is a smaller sideline. It bought Greif's containerboard business in 2025.
Moat: narrow (scale, distribution). Integrated mill-to-box system keeps freight and converting costs low versus rivals.
Headquarters: Lake Forest, Illinois, US · Founded: 1959 · Employees: 16,800
Size Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) is a United States Materials company (Containers/Packaging) with a market value of $22.2B, the 465th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $249.70 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 11.9%, against +12.7% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 6th lowest of 12 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 12.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +5.4%); the operating margin is 13.1% (peer median 11.2%).
Valuation It trades at 17.8× forward earnings against a peer median of 18.5× (5th cheapest of 11).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 4% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is -2 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 18.2 points above its cost of capital (8.2% WACC).
Credit Packaging Corporation of America has 6 bonds outstanding ($3.00B), rated BBB+ by the agencies and trading like A at a weighted spread of 78 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 3.6% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 27 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $9.82B | $8.99B | $8.38B | $7.80B | $8.48B |
| Revenue growth | — | +7% | +7% | -8% | — |
| Gross profit | $2.02B | $1.89B | $1.78B | $1.70B | $2.09B |
| EBITDA | $2.09B | $1.88B | $1.68B | $1.63B | $1.93B |
| Net income | $723M | $769M | $800M | $759M | $1.02B |
| Free cash flow | n/a | $729M | $522M | $845M | $671M |
| Capital expenditure | n/a | $831M | $672M | $472M | $830M |
| Total debt | n/a | $4.36B | $2.77B | $3.17B | $2.79B |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Packaging Corporation of America PKG | $22.2B | +12% | +12% | 13% | 17.8× | 4.3% |
| Smurfit Westrock SW | $23.1B | +7% | +1% | 5% | 15.1× | 13.5% |
| International Paper IP | $18.3B | +6% | +3% | 3% | 15.8× | 26.4% |
| Graphic Packaging GPK | $3.31B | +5% | 0% | 6% | 12.3× | 5.0% |
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 | PKG | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +8.6% | +10.2% | 6th lowest of 12 |
| 6-month return | +11.9% | +12.7% | 6th lowest of 12 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -4.9% | -9.7% | 5th highest of 12 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +12.0% | +5.4% | 5th highest of 12 |
| Operating margin | 13.1% | 11.2% | 4th highest of 12 |
| Forward P/E | 17.8× | 18.5× | 5th cheapest of 11 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 4.3% | 5.1% | 5th least demanding of 11 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.2% | +8.6% | 4th lowest of 11 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -1.9 pp | -6.8 pp | 4th most demanding of 11 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +18.2 pp | +2.0 pp | highest of 12 |
| EV / EBITDA | 10.3× | 10.2× | 5th cheapest of 9 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.8× | 3.0× | 3rd least indebted of 10 |
| Bond spread | 78 bp | 96 bp | tightest of 9 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Packaging Corporation of America PKG | United States | $22.2B | +12% | +12% | 13% | 17.8× | 4.3% | +6.2% |
| Smurfit Westrock SW | United States | $23.1B | +7% | +1% | 5% | 15.1× | 13.5% | +26.2% |
| Amcor AMCR | United States | $20.7B | +14% | +57% | 9% | n/a | 5.8% | +12.8% |
| Ball BALL | United States | $17.2B | +13% | +21% | 11% | 15.3× | 6.4% | +2.3% |
| Crown CCK | United States | $13.1B | +20% | +14% | 12% | 13.9× | -4.7% | +5.7% |
| CCL Industries CCL-B.TO | Canada | $11.8B | +17% | +5% | 15% | 18.7× | 1.3% | +7.9% |
| Owens Corning OC | United States | $9.59B | 0% | -11% | 14% | 15.3× | 3.6% | +7.4% |
| AptarGroup ATR | United States | $9.03B | +18% | +9% | 12% | 23.4× | 4.3% | +5.2% |
| Stora Enso STEAV.HE | Finland | $8.58B | 0% | -1% | -4% | 18.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Yunnan Energy New Material (Group) 002812.SZ | China | $7.55B | -38% | +50% | 17% | 19.8× | 7.8% | +26.1% |
| SIG SIGN.SW | Switzerland | $7.07B | +23% | -5% | 5% | 20.5× | 18.4% | +9.4% |
| China International Marine Containers (Group) 000039.SZ | China | $6.19B | -23% | 0% | 4% | 18.7× | -9.2% | +10.7% |
Packaging Corporation of America has 6 bonds outstanding with $3.00B face value. The agencies rate it BBB+; its bonds trade like A. Weighted yield 5.62%, a spread of 78 bp over government bonds.