CluenexGraphic Packaging Holding GPK
Graphic Packaging Holding scores weak on business quality (2.9 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Graphic Packaging Holding does
Graphic Packaging Holding Co manufactures consumer packaging, selling paper-based folding cartons directly to food, beverage, and consumer product brands. The company relies on its scale to supply high-volume packaging lines.
- What it does best
Graphic Packaging achieves a gross margin of 15.5%, trailing peer Sonoco's 20.8%, but maintains deep customer integration across consumer goods supply chains through custom paperboard tooling.
- The main risk
Net debt sits at $5.31 billion against a market capitalization pressured by declining revenue, leaving little room for error if containerboard demand softens further.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin sits at 7.0% with a net margin of 2.3%, reflecting thin cushions that compress further during volume downturns and limit scale benefits.
The moat relies on customer switching costs tied to custom carton manufacturing lines, though a gross margin in the bottom quartile of its sector at the 15th percentile limits pricing power.
Revenue fell 2.2% to $8.64 billion, continuing a multi-year contraction from $9.44 billion in 2022 as demand and pricing power fade across its packaging segments.
Total debt of $5.57 billion outweighs cash of $261 million, resulting in a high debt-to-equity ratio of 1.7. Free cash flow recovered to $473 million, but balance-sheet pressure remains heavy.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on GPK
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Graphic Packaging Holding scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (2.9 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat weak, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 3, 2026.
See GPK today
- Today's verdict on GPK, and why
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Cite this page: Cluenex, “Graphic Packaging Holding (GPK)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/gpk/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.