Packaging Co. of America (PKG) Competitors

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) and Packaging Co. of America (NYSE:PKG) are both industrial products companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Do analysts rate GPK or PKG?

Graphic Packaging currently has a consensus target price of $32.37, suggesting a potential upside of 15.66%. Packaging Co. of America has a consensus target price of $238.67, suggesting a potential upside of 0.48%. Given Graphic Packaging's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Graphic Packaging is more favorable than Packaging Co. of America.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Graphic Packaging	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Packaging Co. of America	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in GPK or PKG?

Packaging Co. of America received 15 more outperform votes than Graphic Packaging when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 63.93% of users gave Graphic Packaging an outperform vote while only 59.17% of users gave Packaging Co. of America an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Graphic Packaging	Outperform Votes 514 63.93%	Underperform Votes 290 36.07%
Packaging Co. of America	Outperform Votes 529 59.17%	Underperform Votes 365 40.83%

Is GPK or PKG more profitable?

Packaging Co. of America has a net margin of 9.46% compared to Graphic Packaging's net margin of 7.99%. Graphic Packaging's return on equity of 28.26% beat Packaging Co. of America's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Graphic Packaging	7.99%	28.26%	7.27%
Packaging Co. of America	9.46%	19.10%	8.89%

Is GPK or PKG a better dividend stock?

Graphic Packaging pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Packaging Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $5.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Graphic Packaging pays out 17.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Packaging Co. of America pays out 58.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Which has better earnings and valuation, GPK or PKG?

Packaging Co. of America has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Graphic Packaging. Graphic Packaging is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Packaging Co. of America, 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
Graphic Packaging	$9.43B	0.89	$723M	$2.34	11.96
Packaging Co. of America	$7.80B	2.73	$765.20M	$8.58	27.68

Do institutionals and insiders believe in GPK or PKG?

99.7% of Graphic Packaging shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of Packaging Co. of America shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Graphic Packaging shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Packaging Co. of America shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer GPK or PKG?

In the previous week, Packaging Co. of America had 4 more articles in the media than Graphic Packaging. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Packaging Co. of America and 6 mentions for Graphic Packaging. Packaging Co. of America's average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat Graphic Packaging's score of 0.83 indicating that Packaging Co. of America is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Graphic Packaging	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Packaging Co. of America	8 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, GPK or PKG?

Graphic Packaging has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its stock price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Packaging Co. of America has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Packaging Co. of America beats Graphic Packaging on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.