AI interpretation based on checked source excerpts. Issuer assertions and evidence limitations remain explicit.
Policy quality-scores-3: six equally weighted categories. The overall score requires full coverage. Missing inputs are not zero. Qualitative grades are sourced interpretations, not probabilities. 3/6 · 05/11/2026
Moat—
Awaiting a sourced assessment under the current scoring policy and financial basis.
Pricing power—
Awaiting a sourced assessment under the current scoring policy and financial basis.
Predictability92
5 consecutive published annual periods. Equal weights: nondeclining revenue frequency; revenue-growth volatility (5–40pp); positive FCF frequency; FCF-margin volatility (3–20pp). Stability indicator, not a growth forecast.
- Nondeclining revenue years (%)
- 75.00
- Revenue growth volatility (pp)
- 7.03
- Positive FCF years (%)
- 100.00
- FCF margin volatility (pp)
- 1.67
- observedAnnualPeriods
- 5.00
Financial strength69
Equal-weight grades: debt/FCF (1–8x), net debt/earnings before interest and tax (0–5x), interest service (1–12x), current ratio (0.75–2x). Earnings use reported operating income, an original issuer-reported unadjusted EBIT reconciled to net income, income tax and signed net interest, or reported pretax profit plus reported gross interest expense. Reported EBIT is distinct from GAAP operating income and gross interest. Interest service uses earnings/interest expense; if unavailable, it uses reported operating cash flow/cash interest paid, without relabeling cash paid as accrued expense. Nonpositive cash flow/earnings score 0 for their service component; reported zero interest with a positive numerator scores 100. Net cash scores 100 for net leverage. Missing disclosures remain unavailable. General nonfinancial-company rubric, not a credit rating; exceptional and nonoperating gains are not normalized out. IFRS finance-cost and cash-flow classifications retain their reported scope.
- debtFcfGrade
- 36.50
- netDebtEbitGrade
- 37.88
- interestCoverageGrade
- 100.00
- currentRatioGrade
- 100.00
- Debt / FCF (x)
- 5.45
- Net debt / operating income (x)
- 3.11
- Current ratio (x)
- 3.17
- cashInterestPaid
- 100.60
- cashInterestCoverage
- 15.48
Capital allocation89
Three-year equal-weight indicators: pretax return on average invested capital (0–25%; equity + debt − cash, each year and its prior year), share-count growth (0–5%, lower better), share-based cost/revenue (2–20%, lower better), consolidated FCF/net income (0–1x). Return uses reported operating income, an original issuer-reported unadjusted EBIT reconciled to net income, income tax and signed net interest, or EBIT calculated from reported pretax profit plus reported gross interest expense; the issuer-reported EBIT is distinct from GAAP operating income and gross interest; exceptional/nonoperating gains are not normalized out. Share-based cost uses the reported cash-flow add-back or, if absent, separately reported recognized compensation expense; the latter never becomes an FCF adjustment. Nonpositive net income scores 0 for cash conversion; absent income/FCF stays unavailable. ROIC remains undefined for nonpositive invested capital; the explicit asset-return alternative does not change the ROIC chart. Missing financial inputs alone never trigger an alternative. Does not establish acquisition quality or buyback timing.
- 3-year pre-tax operating return (%)
- 17.05
- 3-year average dilution (%)
- -1.08
- 3-year average SBC / revenue (%)
- 0.53
- cashConversionGrade
- 89.38
Management—
Awaiting a sourced assessment under the current scoring policy and financial basis.
Evidence
Corrugated products plants tend to be located in close proximity to customers to minimize freight costs.
business/facilities/proximity to customers · Filed 26/02/2026
Corrugated producers generally sell within a 150-mile radius of their plants and compete with other corrugated producers in their local region.
business/competition/local radius and regional competition · Filed 26/02/2026
The primary basis for competition for most of our packaging products includes quality, service, price, product design, and innovation.
business/competition/basis for competition includes price · Filed 26/02/2026
According to industry sources, corrugated products are produced by about 370 U.S.
business/competition/industry structure and plant count · Filed 26/02/2026
6
On a national level, our primary competitors are International Paper, Smurfit WestRock, Georgia-Pacific LLC, and Pratt Industries.
business/competition/named competitors · Filed 26/02/2026
PCA’s agreements with corrugated products customers generally include price change provisions based upon the change in reported containerboard prices at negotiated amounts and times.
MD&A/pricing/contractual price-change provisions · Filed 07/08/2026
Packaging segment EBITDA excluding special items was $489 million in the second quarter of 2026 compared to $453 million in the second quarter of 2025.1 The increase in EBITDA excluding special items was driven by contribution from the acquired business and higher sales and production volume in the legacy business, partially offset by higher freight and logistics expenses, lower price and mix, higher fixed and other expenses, higher maintenance outage expense, and higher operating and converting costs.
MD&A/results/packaging EBITDA with lower price/mix · Filed 07/08/2026
Business” of this Form 10-K. Containerboard prices published by industry publications increased in the first and second quarter of 2024, after declining late in 2022 and throughout 2023.
10-K/MD&A/industry containerboard price changes · Filed 27/02/2025
In part due to the timing of these changes, our average prices were lower in 2024 than in 2023.
10-K/MD&A/average prices lower despite industry increases · Filed 27/02/2025
We notified customers of a $70 per ton price increase for linerboard and a $90 per ton price increase for medium effective January 1, 2025.
10-K/MD&A/notified containerboard price increases · Filed 27/02/2025
Macroeconomic conditions and fluctuations in industry capacity can create changes in prices, sales volumes, and margins for most of our products, particularly commodity grades of packaging and paper products.
risk factors/industry cyclicality and commodity exposure · Filed 26/02/2026
Prices for all of our products are driven by many factors, including demand for our products, industry capacity decisions made by other producers with respect to capacity and production, inflation and other general cost increases, and other competitive conditions in our industry.
risk factors/prices driven by demand, capacity, and competition · Filed 26/02/2026
Our papers compete with electronic data transmission, e-readers, electronic document storage alternatives, and paper grades we do not produce.
business/paper/competition from electronic alternatives · Filed 26/02/2026
Increasing shifts to these alternatives have had, and are likely to continue to have, an adverse effect on traditional print media and paper usage and lower demand for communication papers.
business/paper/demand erosion from substitution · Filed 26/02/2026
As of December 31, 2025, we produced corrugated and protective packaging products at 91 facilities, and operated a technical and development center, six regional design centers, a rotogravure printing operation, and a complement of packaging supplies and distribution centers.
business/facilities/footprint and design centers · Filed 26/02/2026
Corrugated product shipments were up 24.3% per day and in total compared to the second quarter of 2025.
MD&A/packaging volume growth (legacy and total) · Filed 07/08/2026
Pursuant to its written charter, the audit committee is responsible for adopting, and has adopted, a policy to pre-approve all audit and permitted non-audit services to be performed for us by the independent registered public accounting firm.
governance/audit pre-approval policy · Filed 27/03/2026
Our corporate governance guidelines provide that a majority of the board of directors shall consist of independent directors.
governance/board independence · Filed 27/03/2026
Compensation Recovery Policy
We have an executive compensation recovery policy, which relates to the recovery of any erroneously awarded compensation to any current or former executive officer in the event of a restatement of the company’s reported financial results.
governance/compensation recovery and anti-hedging · Filed 27/03/2026
•
Long-term equity awards. Long-term equity awards consisted of approximately equal portions of time-vesting restricted stock, performance units using return on invested capital (ROIC) as a performance measure (ROIC units) and performance units using TSR as a performance measure (TSR Units).
compensation/long-term equity with ROIC and TSR · Filed 27/03/2026
The performance period for the ROIC performance units awarded in 2021 ended on December 31, 2024 and vested, subject to continued service, on February 23, 2025.
compensation/ROIC unit performance outcome · Filed 27/03/2026
Below is a summary table of our cash flows, followed by a discussion of our sources and uses of cash through operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities (dollars in millions):
Year Ended December 31,
2025
2024
Net cash provided by (used for):
Operating activities
$
1,557.5
$
1,191.2
Investing activities
(2,572.9
)
(277.8
)
Financing activities
859.4
(876.4
)
Net (decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents
$
(156.0
)
$
37.0
Operating Activities
Our operating cash flow is primarily driven by our earnings and changes in operating assets and liabilities, such as accounts receivable, inventories, accounts payable and other accrued liabilities, as well as other factors described below.
MD&A/cash flows summary · Filed 26/02/2026
We spent $829 million for internal capital investments during 2025, compared to $670 million during 2024.
MD&A/capital expenditures detail · Filed 26/02/2026
We believe that net cash generated from operating activities, cash on hand, available borrowings under our revolving credit facility and available capital through access to capital markets will be adequate to meet our liquidity and capital requirements, including payments of any declared common stock dividends, for the foreseeable future.
MD&A/liquidity outlook · Filed 26/02/2026
Most corrugated products are manufactured to the customer’s specifications.
business/packaging/customer-specific specifications · Filed 26/02/2026
