WestRock (WRK) Competitors

Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) and WestRock (NYSE:WRK) are both large-cap industrial products companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, community ranking, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends and media sentiment.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in PKG or WRK?

89.8% of Packaging Co. of America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.4% of WestRock shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Packaging Co. of America shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of WestRock shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate PKG or WRK?

Packaging Co. of America presently has a consensus target price of $176.57, suggesting a potential downside of 3.77%. WestRock has a consensus target price of $48.80, suggesting a potential downside of 9.02%. Given WestRock's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Packaging Co. of America is more favorable than WestRock.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Packaging Co. of America	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.43
WestRock	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Is PKG or WRK a better dividend stock?

Packaging Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $5.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. WestRock pays an annual dividend of $1.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Packaging Co. of America pays out 62.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. WestRock pays out 101.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Packaging Co. of America has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years and WestRock has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Packaging Co. of America is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor PKG or WRK?

Packaging Co. of America received 14 more outperform votes than WestRock when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 63.51% of users gave WestRock an outperform vote while only 58.96% of users gave Packaging Co. of America an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Packaging Co. of America	Outperform Votes 510 58.96%	Underperform Votes 355 41.04%
WestRock	Outperform Votes 496 63.51%	Underperform Votes 285 36.49%

Which has more risk & volatility, PKG or WRK?

Packaging Co. of America has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WestRock has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better valuation and earnings, PKG or WRK?

Packaging Co. of America has higher earnings, but lower revenue than WestRock. Packaging Co. of America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than WestRock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Packaging Co. of America	$7.80B	2.11	$765.20M	$8.00	22.94
WestRock	$20.31B	0.68	-$1.65B	$1.19	45.08

Does the media prefer PKG or WRK?

In the previous week, Packaging Co. of America had 1 more articles in the media than WestRock. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Packaging Co. of America and 9 mentions for WestRock. Packaging Co. of America's average media sentiment score of 1.05 beat WestRock's score of 0.83 indicating that WestRock is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Packaging Co. of America	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
WestRock	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is PKG or WRK more profitable?

Packaging Co. of America has a net margin of 9.25% compared to Packaging Co. of America's net margin of 1.57%. WestRock's return on equity of 18.80% beat Packaging Co. of America's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Packaging Co. of America	9.25%	18.80%	8.76%
WestRock	1.57%	5.85%	2.16%

Summary

Packaging Co. of America beats WestRock on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.