Packaging Corp of America PKG

Revenue Intelligence Report • 66 quarters of SEC filing data • Updated 2026-03-15

Revenue is largely driven by SG&A spending, with a log-log elasticity of 0.88: a 1% uptick in SG&A is associated with roughly a 0.88% rise in revenue, as seen in the latest quarter's $2.364 billion in revenue. The forecasting model shows solid predictive accuracy, with a 3.1% MAPE and a holdout test error of 4.2%, where a $2.3B forecast was close to the actual $2.4B. The FY outlook calls for $8.5B in revenue, about 5.4% lower year over year, signaling near-term headwinds. Investors should view SG&A spending as a positive ROI lever for revenue, but sustaining growth will require disciplined cost management and favorable demand to offset the negative growth trajectory.

Investment Thesis

The econometric model achieves strong accuracy (3.1% MAPE), suggesting Packaging Corp of America's revenue trajectory is well-characterized by its spending patterns. Sales & marketing spend shows a 0.88x elasticity, suggesting effective go-to-market execution.

Next FY Revenue
$8.51B
-5.4% YoY
SG&A Elasticity
0.88x
Model Accuracy
3.1% MAPE
Holdout validation: The model predicted $2.3B vs the actual $2.4B — an error of 4.2%.
Note: Packaging Corp of America does not report R&D expenses separately. This analysis uses SG&A spending only.

Revenue Forecast

PKG Revenue Forecast

Quarterly Detail

QuarterModel ForecastActual95% RangeYoY GrowthStatus
Q4 2025 $2.3B $2.4B $2.1B – $2.5B +5.5% ✓ In range
Q2 2026 $2.2B $2.0B – $2.5B +3.7%
Q3 2026 $2.2B $1.8B – $2.5B -0.8%
Q4 2026 $2.1B $1.7B – $2.5B -10.0%
Q1 2027 $2.0B $1.7B – $2.5B -13.3%

Seasonal Factors

Multiplicative seasonal adjustment: These factors capture Packaging Corp of America's systematic quarterly revenue patterns relative to the trend model. A factor of 1.05 means that quarter typically runs 5% above the underlying trend; 0.95 means 5% below. Factors are computed as the median of (actual / fitted) across all available quarters.
Fiscal QuarterSeasonal Factorvs TrendInterpretationObs.
FQ1 (Sep–Nov) 1.0106 +1.1% In line with trend 16
FQ2 (Dec–Feb) 0.98 -2.0% In line with trend 16
FQ3 (Mar–May) 0.9954 -0.5% In line with trend 15
FQ4 (Jun–Aug) 0.9977 -0.2% In line with trend 15

How Spending Drives Revenue

PKG Spending Timing
Reading this chart: Each line shows the cumulative elasticity — how a 1% increase in spending translates to revenue growth over subsequent quarters. The effect builds over 4-5 quarters as investments compound.

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