Sonoco Products Company Common Stock (SON)

FairStock Score: 82/100 — HIGH CONVICTION

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

As a value investor, I look for a decent business at a price that leaves room for error. Sonoco makes engineered and sustainable packaging, including rigid paper, steel and plastic containers, closures and industrial paper products. Packaging demand is steady but cyclical, and the business is capital-intensive, so I want to see returns and debt carefully. The filed numbers are mixed. Fiscal 2025 revenue was $7.5B with net income of $1.0B and diluted EPS of $10.07, but that included an unusually strong fiscal Q2 2025, when net income was $493.4M and EPS was $4.96. More recently, fiscal Q1 2026 revenue was $1.7B with net income of $67.6M and EPS of $0.68. The latest quarter shown had a 5.56% margin. At the 2026-10-13 close of $48.74, FairStock calculates a P/E of 7.53, P/B of 1.35, EV/EBITDA of 6.09, and a 4.42% dividend yield. Free cash flow is $354.8M, a 7.4% FCF yield. The Graham Number is $72.61, implying a 32.87% margin of safety. Yet the moat, if any, is not evident in returns: ROCE is only 3.95%, despite ROE of 18.86%. Debt-to-equity is 1.32, and the Altman Z-Score of 1.06 signals financial risk. Piotroski is 9/9 and the Lynch category is Stalwart on five-year profit growth of 37.0% and revenue growth of 7.5%, even though recent profit growth is -78.74%. The stock looks statistically cheap, but the earnings volatility and leverage demand caution.

In plain English: Sonoco makes packaging products, including paper, metal and plastic containers and industrial paper packaging. The business has been uneven: sales slipped a little, and profit recently fell sharply, though it still produces cash and pays a solid dividend. At the recent close, the stock looks inexpensive compared with its profits, cash flow and accounting value, but the weak recent profit trend and high debt make that less certain.

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Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Sources (SEC EDGAR): fiscal Q1 2026 10-Q (period ended 2026-03-29) · fiscal Q3 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-09-28) · fiscal Q2 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-06-29) · fiscal Q1 2025 10-Q (period ended 2025-03-30) · FY2025 10-K (period ended 2025-12-31) · FY2024 10-K (period ended 2024-12-31) · FY2023 10-K (period ended 2023-12-31)

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer