Sonoco Products Co.
At its beginnings in 1899, a team of 12 people worked from a rented warehouse to produce the Company s first product, a cone-shaped paper yarn carrier used for winding and transporting yarn. Since most of the textile cones of that day were wooden, paper cones were a novelty.
$50.27
-$0.69 (-1.35%)
EOD Oct 22, 2026
13.54% operating margin is respectable but not wide. ROIC at 9.27%. Suggests the business covers its cost of capital, but doesn't point to a wide moat.
Revenue up 41.7% YoY with margins expanding 6.1pp. However, free cash flow softened 22%, worth monitoring whether this is timing or structural.
Free cash flow declined 22% versus the prior year, cash generation momentum has weakened. Net debt of $4.32B represents 12.5x FCF, leverage limits flexibility.
4.9x earnings, 23.0x FCF. The multiple is below average. Either the market is pricing in deterioration you should investigate, or there's genuine value here.
Price History
Valuation & Multiples
Based on TTM earnings · Diluted shares
Profitability & Returns
Revenue (TTM)
$7.49B
▲ +41.7% YoY
Net Income (TTM)
$1.02B
▲ +511.8% YoY
Op. Margin
13.60%
▲ +6.1pp YoY
ROIC
9.72%
▲ +4.3pp YoY
Cash Flow & Balance Sheet
FCF (TTM)
$217M
▼ -21.5% YoY
Op. Cash Flow (TTM)
$530M
▼ -17.3% YoY
Net Debt
$4.84B
Cash & Equiv.
$224M
5Y CAGR: +7.0%
5Y CAGR: -7.5%
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SourceComputed from the 10-Q filed 28 Apr 2026, covering the period ending 29 Mar 2026, as reported to the SEC. Data last refreshed 2 Oct 2026. How this is calculated.
Price from market data, last close as of 22 Oct 2026. Fiscal year ends Dec. Sector medians are approximate S&P 500 benchmarks and update periodically.
Is Sonoco Products (SON) overvalued?
At a P/E of 4.9 and a price-to-free-cash-flow of 23.0, Sonoco Products (SON) trades around a two-stage DCF intrinsic value of about $61.10 per share, so at $50.27 the stock looks around fair value (21.5% below estimated intrinsic value). A high multiple is not the same as overvalued: fast-growing, high-quality businesses can deserve a premium. See the general approach in how to tell if a stock is overvalued.
On quality, Sonoco Products scores 65/100 on Intrinsiqq's quality scorecard (a solid business on these measures), weighing growth, margins, returns on capital, share count, and balance-sheet strength. It currently yields about 4.2%; see dividend safety for coverage and history. All figures are computed from SEC filings; read the full methodology, or see how the market compares in our US profitability statistics. This is analysis, not investment advice.
Frequently asked
What is Sonoco Products's fair value?+
Intrinsiqq's two-stage DCF estimates an intrinsic value of about $61.10 per share for SON, projecting its recent free cash flow forward with a growth rate that fades toward a long-run rate and discounting it back to today. Applying a 25% margin of safety gives a more conservative fair-value entry around $45.83. At today's $50.27, that puts the stock about 21.5% below estimated intrinsic value. The result is sensitive to the growth and discount-rate inputs, so it is best to run conservative, base and optimistic cases. You can adjust all of them yourself with the sliders on the DCF tab.
Is Sonoco Products a high-quality business?+
Sonoco Products scores 65 out of 100 on Intrinsiqq's quality score, a weighted blend of 8 metrics each scored 0 to 100, which makes it a solid business on these measures. Recent fundamentals include a 13.6% operating margin and a 9.7% return on invested capital. The score weighs revenue and free-cash-flow growth, operating margins, return on invested capital, share-count change, and balance-sheet strength, all computed from SEC filings, not opinion. Because valuation only means something relative to quality, the full metric-by-metric breakdown is on the quality scorecard.
Does Sonoco Products (SON) pay a dividend, and how much?+
Yes, Sonoco Products pays a regular dividend of about $2.10 per share per year (typically in quarterly installments), a yield of roughly 4.2% at the current price. That is a payout ratio of about 20.6% of earnings, so the dividend is amply covered by earnings. Sonoco Products has grown the dividend at roughly 3.9% a year over the past few years. A low headline yield is not the same as a weak dividend: what matters is how well earnings and free cash flow cover the payout and whether it is growing, not the percentage alone. For SON's full payout history, growth streak and dividend-safety score, see the dividends tab.
Is Sonoco Products a good stock to buy right now?+
That depends on valuation and quality together, not either alone. SON currently trades around its estimated intrinsic value and scores 65/100 on quality (solid). It also yields about 4.2%. A cheap price is only a bargain if the business is durable, and a premium can be justified by genuine quality, so the two questions, "is it cheap?" and "is it good?", only make sense side by side. Read the valuation against the quality scorecard, run the DCF on your own assumptions, and decide for yourself. This is analysis from SEC filings, not investment advice.
Related stocks: Paperboard Containers & Boxes
Spot a number that looks wrong? Check it in SON's SEC filings or
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Data sourced from SEC EDGAR filings and third-party price providers. Scores, valuations, and metrics are algorithmic estimates. This is not investment advice. See our Terms and Methodology.
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