Sonoco Products (SON) Competitors

Graphic Packaging (NYSE:GPK) and Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, community ranking, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, media sentiment and dividends.

Do analysts prefer GPK or SON?

Graphic Packaging presently has a consensus target price of $31.53, indicating a potential upside of 10.53%. Sonoco Products has a consensus target price of $58.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.05%. Given Sonoco Products' higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sonoco Products is more favorable than Graphic Packaging.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Graphic Packaging	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.43
Sonoco Products	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25

Does the media refer more to GPK or SON?

In the previous week, Graphic Packaging had 3 more articles in the media than Sonoco Products. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for Graphic Packaging and 3 mentions for Sonoco Products. Sonoco Products' average media sentiment score of 1.67 beat Graphic Packaging's score of 1.12 indicating that Sonoco Products is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Graphic Packaging	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Sonoco Products	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in GPK or SON?

99.7% of Graphic Packaging shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Sonoco Products shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Graphic Packaging shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Sonoco Products shares are held 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.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, GPK or SON?

Graphic Packaging has higher revenue and earnings than Sonoco Products. Graphic Packaging is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sonoco Products, 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	0.91	$723M	$2.34	12.19
Sonoco Products	$6.78B	0.72	$474.96M	$2.91	17.18

Which has more volatility and risk, GPK or SON?

Graphic Packaging has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sonoco Products has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor GPK or SON?

Sonoco Products received 154 more outperform votes than Graphic Packaging when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.17% of users gave Graphic Packaging an outperform vote while only 64.17% of users gave Sonoco Products an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Graphic Packaging	Outperform Votes 514 64.17%	Underperform Votes 287 35.83%
Sonoco Products	Outperform Votes 668 64.17%	Underperform Votes 373 35.83%

Is GPK or SON a better dividend stock?

Graphic Packaging pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Sonoco Products pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.2%. Graphic Packaging pays out 17.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sonoco Products pays out 71.5% 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.

Is GPK or SON more profitable?

Graphic Packaging has a net margin of 7.99% compared to Sonoco Products' net margin of 4.38%. Graphic Packaging's return on equity of 28.26% beat Sonoco Products' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Graphic Packaging	7.99%	28.26%	7.27%
Sonoco Products	4.38%	19.92%	6.38%

Summary

Graphic Packaging beats Sonoco Products on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.