PACKAGING CORP OF AMERICA (PKG): what the price requires
At today's price, PACKAGING CORP OF AMERICA (PKG) is priced for +9.6% growth. boothcheck doesn't publish a fair value or a price target; it shows what the price assumes, so you can judge whether that bar is too high.
Generated: 2026-07-14 · Exported: 2026-07-16 · Source: https://boothcheck.com/report/PKG
Headline
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | PKG |
| Company | PACKAGING CORP OF AMERICA |
| Current price | $225.12/sh |
| Composition | Packaging 92% / Paper 7% / Corporate and Other 1% |
What The Price Requires (Inversion)
The assumption today's price embeds, recovered by inverting the valuation.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Inversion basis | whole-company |
| Operating margin needed | 8.7% |
| Operating margin today | 13.2% |
| Margin compression implied | -4.5pp |
| Implied growth | 9.6% |
| Multiple paid | 20x operating income |
The operating-margin requirement is derived from the framework's value band at year 12, a separately labeled basis from the headline growth/duration solve.
Solve inputs: computed at a 8.2% cost of capital with 4% terminal growth over a 5-year stage; each 1pp of cost of capital moves the implied operating-profit growth ~7.2pp.
Reconcile: at the x-ray's 9.3% required return this reads ~16.8%/yr; the models below use their own rates.
How unusual the bet is: within-range
| Reference | Value |
|---|---|
| vs own history | -0.17σ |
| cohort percentile (of 76 peers) | 61 |
| implied end-window share | 0% |
Valuation X-Ray
Asset, earnings-power and peer-multiple models all land far below the price; ONLY the growth-DCF reaches it. The bet is durable compounding the static frames structurally cannot price (a moat/durability premium).
How the valuation models price the stock relative to the market price. Price/FV above 1.0 means the market pays more than that lens defends (expensive); at or below 1.0 the lens can defend the price.
| Family | Median price/FV | Models | Reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | 2.31x | 5 | expensive |
| Earnings | 4.11x | 4 | expensive |
| Relative | 1.45x | 3 | expensive |
| Growth | 1.16x | 3 | expensive |
Families that justify the price: Growth Families that call it expensive: Asset, Earnings
The models below discount at their own flat-beta convention rates (cost of equity 9.3%, WACC 8.3%); the inversion above states its own rate.
Per-Model Detail (n=15)
| Model | Family | FV | Price/FV | Applicable | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCF Perpetual Growth | Growth | $174.48 | 1.29x | yes | FCF base $0.7B, growth 8% (input: historical growth), terminal g 4.0%, WACC 8.3%, 6yr projection |
| DCF Exit Multiple | Growth | $236.55 | 0.95x | yes | Exit EV/EBITDA: 11.2x / 13.2x / 15.2x (bear / base = today's held flat / bull), 6yr |
| Relative Valuation | Relative | $155.66 | 1.45x | yes | P/E 17.92x (blended: static sector reference 14x + trailing (TTM) 27x), scenarios: 14.9x / 17.9x / 20.9x (bear / base = reference held flat / bull), EV/EBITDA 9.56x |
| Simple DDM | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Two-Stage DDM | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Simple Excess Return | Asset | $89.93 | 2.50x | yes | BV/sh $51.49, ROE (TTM) 16.2%, ke 9.3% |
| Two-Stage Excess Return | Asset | $117.33 | 1.92x | yes | 5yr excess ROE then converge to ke=9.3% |
| Discounted Future Market Cap | Growth | $193.32 | 1.16x | yes | Rev $9.2B, growth 8% (input: historical growth; tapered), Terminal P/S: 1.8x / 2.2x / 2.5x (bear / base = today's held flat / bull, cap 8x) |
| Growth-Adjusted P/E | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Margin Trajectory | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Earnings Power Value | Earnings | $83.63 | 2.69x | yes | Normalized EBIT (5y avg op income, one-time charges added back) $1.19B × (1−22%) / WACC 8.3% → EPV (no growth) |
| Residual Income | Asset | $119.10 | 1.89x | yes | BV $51.49 + 5yr PV of (ROE (TTM) 16.2% − Kₑ 9.3%) × BV; BV grows 8.8%/yr |
| Graham Number | Asset | $97.65 | 2.31x | yes | √(22.5 × EPS $8.23 × BVPS $51.49) — Graham's conservative floor |
| EV/EBITDA Relative | Relative | $118.75 | 1.90x | yes | EBITDA $1.82B × sector EV/EBITDA 8.0x |
| FCF Yield | Earnings | $40.72 | 5.53x | yes | FCF $702.2M / Kₑ 9.3% — zero-growth perpetuity |
| SBC-Adj FCF Yield | Earnings | $35.54 | 6.33x | yes | SBC-adj FCF $0.66B (FCF $0.70B − SBC $0.04B) capitalized at Kₑ |
| Ben Graham Formula | Earnings | $6.90 | 32.63x | yes | EPS $8.23 × (8.5 + 2×-5.0%) × (4.4 / 5.3%) (excluded from median) |
| ROIC-Justified P/B | Asset | $14.19 | 15.86x | yes | BV $51.49 × (ROIC 2.3% / WACC 8.3%) |
| P/Sales Sector | Relative | $155.15 | 1.45x | yes | Revenue $9.22B × sector P/S 1.5x |
| PEG Fair Value | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Earnings Yield | Earnings | $88.97 | 2.53x | yes | EPS $8.23 / required return 9.3% (Rf 4.3% + ERP 5.0%) |
| Funds From Operations Multiple | Relative | — | — | no | — |
| Clinical Phase NPV | Growth | — | — | no | — |
| Merton | Asset | — | — | no | — |
| V5 Mechanical | — | — | — | no | — |
Solvency
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Net debt | $3.5b |
| Net debt / NOPAT (after-tax) | 3.74x |
| Net debt / operating income (pre-tax) | 2.90x |
| Share count CAGR (buyback) | -1.1% |
| Burning cash | no |
Interest expense is not separately reported in the latest filings, so interest coverage cannot be computed.
Bullet Takeaways
- The earnings momentum is the headline. Q1 2026 net sales rose to $2.4B from $2.1B, EPS was $1.91 ($2.40 excluding special items), and the packaging segment's EBITDA margin expanded to 22% from 20.8% a year earlier, lifted by both volume and the newly integrated Greif containerboard business.
- At about $229 the price is roughly 21 times company-wide operating income, which inverts to about 11.3% annual operating growth for five years. That is a durability premium: only the growth-DCF frame reaches the price, while the asset, earnings-power, and peer-multiple frames all read it as richly valued.
- The bet is that PKG's integrated, low-cost containerboard system keeps compounding through the cycle. The most fragile input is containerboard pricing and box volume, both of which the company does not set and which swing with the broader economy.
Bull Case
The cleanest entry to PKG is the direction of the numbers, because they have been moving the right way and accelerating. Q1 2026 net sales rose to $2.4 billion from $2.1 billion a year earlier, net income excluding special items reached $215 million or $2.40 per share, and the packaging business EBITDA margin expanded to 22% from 20.8%. Volume drove it: legacy corrugated shipments per day were up 2.8%, and including the acquired Greif business total corrugated shipments jumped 19.9%. This is a mature business showing a margin and volume trajectory that points up, not the flat or fading profile the static valuation frames assume.
The structural reason the numbers compound is integration and scale. PKG's filing describes containerboard mills producing linerboard and corrugating medium, the majority of which is consumed internally by its own corrugated-products plants, so the company captures margin across the chain rather than buying board on the open market. It serves about 12,000 customers across roughly 27,000 locations, with corrugated operations typically serving customers within a 150-mile radius, a logistics-anchored network that is expensive for competitors to replicate. The $1.8 billion Greif containerboard acquisition, now completed with an estimated $60 million of pre-tax synergies, deepens that integrated system and adds capacity into a demand base PKG already serves. A low-cost, vertically integrated producer adding scale at the trough of a pricing cycle is positioning for the recovery, not just defending share.
That durability is exactly what the price is paying for, and the model frames it honestly. The inversion shows that only the growth-DCF reaches the current price; the asset, earnings-power, and peer-multiple families all sit below it. The engine labels this a moat or durability premium, the willingness to pay for compounding that the static, no-growth frames structurally cannot price. With a 16.2% ROE, roughly $700 million of free cash flow, a 2.2% dividend, and an integrated network throwing off cash through the cycle, PKG is the kind of business where the growth-DCF read is the right one and the conservative frames understate a franchise that keeps reinvesting its advantage.
Bear Case
The bear case is about which assumption inside the price is most fragile, and for PKG it is the implied 11.3% annual operating growth that only the growth-DCF can justify. Three of the four valuation families, asset, earnings power, and peer multiples, say the stock is richly valued, and the entire case for the current price rests on durable compounding that the static frames cannot capture. That is a narrative-dependency problem: strip out the durability premium and the earnings-power value (normalized EBIT capitalized with no growth) lands far below the price, as does the Graham number and the asset-based residual income on a $51.49 book value. The price is a bet that the integrated system keeps growing operating profit at a double-digit pace, and that bet is the single load-bearing assumption.
The reason it is fragile is that PKG does not control its most important variable. The 10-K is explicit that its results depend on decisions made by other producers with respect to capacity and production, on inflation and general cost increases, and on competitive conditions, all affected by general global and domestic economic conditions and customer purchasing decisions. Containerboard is a commodity whose price swings with industry capacity and the economy, and box volumes track GDP and inventory cycles. The Q1 print was strong, but it was lifted substantially by the Greif acquisition: legacy corrugated shipments per day rose only 2.8%, so organic growth is modest and the headline volume gain is largely bought, not earned. Acquisitions can flatter a comparison for a year without changing the underlying cyclical reality.
Integration and cost add the near-term risk. The quarter's reported earnings already carried special items for restructuring the Wallula, Washington containerboard mill, acquisition and integration costs, and corrugated-facility closures, the messy reality of folding in a $1.8 billion business. The filing also notes that PKG's products compete with other packaging materials and that losing on any key competitive factor, price, quality, or service, could hurt the business. Meanwhile the balance sheet carries about $3.5 billion of net debt after funding the deal. If containerboard pricing softens or box demand cools while integration costs run and leverage sits elevated, the double-digit operating growth the price requires becomes hard to deliver, and the three valuation frames that already call the stock expensive become the more accurate read.
Valuation
PKG is priced as a compounder, and the inversion makes the assumption explicit. At about $229 the market pays roughly 21 times company-wide operating income, which inverts to about 11.3% annual operating growth over a five-year stage, solved at an 8.4% cost of capital with 4% terminal growth. The engine notes that pace is within what PKG has recently delivered and that the firm sits in the lower half of its sector's multiple range, so the bet is more about how long the growth persists than whether the rate is achievable in a given year. Historically only about half of comparable fast-growers sustained this pace for five years, which is why the composite reads within range rather than cheap.
The method spread is the heart of the story. Only the growth family reaches the price: the perpetual-growth and exit-multiple DCFs and the discounted future market cap land near or above the quote. The other three families sit below it. The earnings-power value, normalized EBIT capitalized with no growth, is well under the price, the asset family (residual income and the Graham number on a $51.49 book value with a 16.2% ROE) lands in the low-to-mid $100s, and the peer-multiple frame on EV/EBITDA and P/S also sits below the quote. The engine's own characterization is precise: asset, earnings-power, and peer-multiple models all say richly valued, and only the growth-DCF reaches the price, so the price embeds durable compounding the static frames cannot price.
The honest synthesis is that PKG is fairly valued only if you accept that its integrated, low-cost system is a durable compounder, and rich if you anchor on what the business earns today held flat. The valuation will be vindicated if containerboard pricing and box volumes cooperate and the Greif synergies land, and it will look stretched if the cycle turns before the durability assumption is proven, which is the precise tension the method spread captures.
Catalysts
The near-term catalysts run through the quarterly cadence and the Greif integration. PKG reported Q1 2026 on April 22, 2026, with net sales of $2.4 billion, EPS of $1.91 ($2.40 excluding special items), and packaging EBITDA margin of 22%, ahead of guidance on earnings even as revenue came in slightly light. The print included special items for restructuring the Wallula mill, acquisition and integration costs, and corrugated-facility closures, so the trajectory of those one-time items unwinding into clean run-rate earnings is itself a catalyst over the next several quarters. Containerboard production of 1,398,000 tons and the inventory swings tied to the acquisition are the operating metrics to watch for whether supply and demand are tightening or loosening.
The Greif acquisition is the strategic event still playing out. PKG completed the $1.8 billion purchase of Greif's containerboard business, with estimated pre-tax synergies of about $60 million, and Deutsche Bank cited integration progress alongside strong Q1 earnings in its constructive view. Realizing those synergies, and lapping the acquisition so organic growth becomes visible again, is the test of whether the deal compounds value or just adds scale. On sentiment, the sell side is constructive but not euphoric, with a Buy-leaning consensus and price targets clustered roughly in the $215 to $245 range, around the current quote, with outliers toward $273 on the high side and $180 on the low side reflecting the split view on containerboard pricing into 2026. The clearest catalysts are containerboard price movements and box-volume trends, both macro-driven, plus synergy capture from Greif; the clearest risk trigger is a softening in either pricing or demand while integration costs and leverage are still elevated.
Peer Cohorts (Per Segment, With Filing Citations)
Packaging (reported)
- IP (INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- GPK (Graphic Packaging Holding Co)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- SW (Smurfit Westrock plc)
- (no filing in the citation store)
Paper (reported)
- SW (Smurfit Westrock plc)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- IP (INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- GPK (Graphic Packaging Holding Co)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- SLVM (SYLVAMO CORPORATION)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- REYN (REYNOLDS CONSUMER PRODUCTS INC.)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- KMB (KIMBERLY-CLARK CORPORATION)
- (no filing in the citation store)
- AVY (AVERY DENNISON CORPORATION)
- (no filing in the citation store)
Methodology Note
- Priced-in inversion: the valuation is inverted on the current price to recover the operating-income growth, duration, and steady-state margin the price embeds (ROE for financials, FFO growth for REITs).
- Valuation x-ray: the valuation models, grouped into four families (asset, earnings, relative, growth). Each model is expressed as a price/FV ratio (distance from price), not a point fair-value estimate. The spread across families is the disagreement.
- Solvency: net cash/debt, net-debt-to-NOPAT, interest coverage, and share-count CAGR from EDGAR financials (net debt / FFO and fixed-charge coverage for REITs; regulatory-capital framing for financials).
- Peer cohorts: per-segment comparables with deep-linkable SEC filing citations.
Fundamentals sourced from SEC EDGAR filings. Current price from Databento. The priced-in inversion and valuation x-ray are computed by the boothcheck engine; narrative composed by AI from the structured data.