Is the business good?
How good a business is PKG?
Packaging Corporation of America earns 11% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
11%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 1.6 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 12%
Operating margin · Packaging & Containers median 4.6% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.95×
Cash conversion · 0.61× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- −0.56%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 11% |
| FY2021 | 16% |
| FY2022 | 17% |
| FY2023 | 14% |
| FY2024 | 13% |
| FY2025 | 12% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 20%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 12%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 8.0%
- Free cash flow margin
- 7.6%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $9.22B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $702M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $741M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 11%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Packaging & Containers
Ranks #9 of 15 by Smart Score