Is the business good?
How good a business is SON?
Sonoco Products Company earns 10% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
10%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 1.0 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 14%
Operating margin · Packaging & Containers median 4.6% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.21×
Cash conversion · 0.39× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- +0.36%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 6.8% |
| FY2021 | 8.7% |
| FY2022 | 10% |
| FY2023 | 11% |
| FY2024 | 6.2% |
| FY2025 | 14% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 21%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 14%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 14%
- Free cash flow margin
- 2.9%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $7.49B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $217M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $1.02B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 10%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Packaging & Containers
Ranks #4 of 15 by Smart Score