Prepare Yourself for Liftoff: International Paper Company (IP)

International Paper Company (NYSE: IP) stock fell -2.70% on Thursday to $30.61 against a previous-day closing price of $31.46. With 4.06 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained heavier than its average volume of 2.94 million shares. During the session, the Packaging & Containers company that operates in wider Consumer Cyclical sector, reached to the highest price of $31.00 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $30.41. The 52-week range on IP shows that it touched its highest point at $49.31 and its lowest point at $30.69 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $34.33. With its current market cap of 10.65 billion, IP has annualized dividend of $1.85 while the current yield stands at 6.04%. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.04.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of IP was down-trending over the past week, with a drop of -4.43%, but this was down by -11.43% over a month. Three-month performance dropped to -16.11% while six-month performance fell -16.62%. The stock lost -35.13% in the past year, while it has lost -11.61% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for IP yields 4.28 with Next year EPS estimates of 2.57. For the next quarter, that number is 0.43. This implies an EPS growth rate of 129.50% for this year and 5.19% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 19.20% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of 17.40%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 349.30 million IP shares are outstanding with a float of 346.48 million shares on hand for trading. On May 14, 2023, short shares totaled 12.55 million, which was 3.62% higher than short shares on Apr 13, 2023. In addition to Mr. Mark Stephan Sutton as the firm’s Chairman & CEO, Mr. Timothy S. Nicholls serves as its Sr. VP & CFO.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 88.20% of IP’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 50.78% of IP, in contrast to 34.72% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 2.15%. As the largest shareholder in IP with 11.62% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 40,671,033 shares worth 40,671,033. A second-largest stockholder of IP, BlackRock Fund Advisors, holds 27,901,031 shares, controlling over 7.97% of the firm’s shares. SSgA Funds Management, Inc. is the third largest shareholder in IP, holding 23,330,753 shares or 6.66% stake. With a 3.11% stake in IP, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF is the largest stakeholder. A total of 10,885,604 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The iShares Tr. – Select Dividend ETF, which owns about 2.53% of IP stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 8,865,489 shares valued at 293.54 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund holds 2.38% of the stake in IP, owning 8,348,245 shares worth 276.41 million.

An Overview of Recent Financials:

Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Mar 30, 2023, IP reported revenue of $5.39B and operating income of $538.00M. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $852.00M and diluted EPS was $1.38.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for IP since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With IP analysts setting a high price target of $40.00 and a low target of $26.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $33.38. Based on these targets, IP could surge 30.68% to reach the target high and fall by -15.06% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 9.05% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded IP stock several times over the past three months with 1 Buys and 3 Sells. In these transactions, 4,105 shares were bought while 87,705 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 13 while that of sell transactions has risen to 23 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 380,806 while 267,544 shares were sold.