Graphic Packaging (GPK) Stock Falls Amid Market Uptick: What Investors Need to Know
Graphic Packaging (GPK) ended the recent trading session at $25.15, demonstrating a -1.33% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 0.88%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.54%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 1.35%.
Shares of the packaging company have appreciated by 3.7% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Industrial Products sector's loss of 1.95% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.64%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Graphic Packaging in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on February 20, 2024. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.69, up 16.95% from the prior-year quarter. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $2.4 billion, indicating a 0.74% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Graphic Packaging. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.36% higher. Graphic Packaging is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
With respect to valuation, Graphic Packaging is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.13. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.75, which means Graphic Packaging is trading at a discount to the group.
Meanwhile, GPK's PEG ratio is currently 0.37. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. The Containers - Paper and Packaging industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.8 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Containers - Paper and Packaging industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 107, which puts it in the top 43% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Graphic Packaging Holding Company (GPK) : Free Stock Analysis Report
