Daniel Grizelj/DigitalVision via Getty Images Introduction Graphic Packaging Holding Company ( GPK ) currently trades at $9.23, which looks cheap since it is down over 60% in the past one year. It has a ~4.7% dividend yield, and that, plus the 6-9x multiples, makes it look undervalued. That is, however, an incomplete view of the situation. GPK’s business has weakened significantly, with revenue do...
Daniel Grizelj/DigitalVision via Getty Images Introduction Graphic Packaging Holding Company ( GPK ) currently trades at $9.23, which looks cheap since it is down over 60% in the past one year. It has a ~4.7% dividend yield, and that, plus the 6-9x multiples, makes it look undervalued. That is, however, an incomplete view of the situation. GPK’s business has weakened significantly, with revenue down and EPS declining 30% YoY. Topline performance was still good last year, but margins are under pressure. That shows in their recent quarterly EPS miss despite a revenue beat. Management has therefore taken proactive measures , going into a consolidation mode instead of growth. They now want to control costs, normalize inventory, and repair their balance sheet. Their 2026 guided EBITDA is now much less than 2025 numbers, and free cash flow is guided to ~$700–800 million. These numbers are now coming mostly due to lower capex and cost control, not from any major improvement in the business. The reason for GPK’s price decline is now clear. The core reason: growth has stalled, considerable capex has been spent, but repair has not happened. Just because valuation and yield look attractive on the surface does not mean rerating will occur without proper execution. On top of other difficulties is the huge $5.9 billion debt on a $2.76 billion equity base. A strong rerating will only happen if all these things are done properly - margins are restored, earnings stabilize, and leverage goes down. Until that becomes visible, the stock is likely to remain constrained despite its low valuation. As such, I rate GPK a Hold. Business Overview Graphic Packaging is a global paperboard packaging company working in the consumer staples end markets. Its products include fiber-based packaging used in food, household, and health products. It does business in 26 countries with 3000 customers. GPK’s revenue base is diversified but still concentrated in consumer-facing categories: ~38% from food, ~...
It takes a long time to build a modern warship. From the time the first steel was cut to the date it was commissioned, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford -- currently leading the fight against Iran -- took more than a dozen years to design, build, and float. And this was for a class of warship that defense contracting shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls (NYSE: HII) was already familiar with buildi...
It takes a long time to build a modern warship. From the time the first steel was cut to the date it was commissioned, the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford -- currently leading the fight against Iran -- took more than a dozen years to design, build, and float. And this was for a class of warship that defense contracting shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls (NYSE: HII) was already familiar with building. Now President Trump wants to buy battleships for the Navy, a kind of ship America's shipbuilders haven't made since World War II. The order came down back in December, and so it will probably be a decade or more before we see USS Defiant (BBG 1) in the water. Continue reading
Deborah Green was a charismatic woman who established a ‘free love ministry’ in California, claiming to be a vessel for God. She was also a controlling, cruel sadist. Her daughter Sarah talks about her terrifying upbringing – and dramatic escape Sarah Green realised things weren’t right in the religious community where she was raised when her mother forced three of its members to live in a locked ...
Deborah Green was a charismatic woman who established a ‘free love ministry’ in California, claiming to be a vessel for God. She was also a controlling, cruel sadist. Her daughter Sarah talks about her terrifying upbringing – and dramatic escape Sarah Green realised things weren’t right in the religious community where she was raised when her mother forced three of its members to live in a locked shed. All three were women, disowned by their husbands, and forced to live off scraps of food. Her mother, Deborah Green, said they had been judged by God and this was their punishment. One of the women, an old family friend called Maura, was made to wear a white sackcloth dress and renamed Forsaken. The other two women were renamed Barren and Despised. Sarah is a strong, striking woman with a keen sense of irony and a joyous cackle of a laugh. But now she’s in tears. “I felt sickened to my gut. Even though I’d been groomed and my mom told me, ‘I’m God’s oracle, so therefore I hear what God wants for everybody, and this is what they have to go through because they’re sinning’, it didn’t make sense to me.” She sniffs back her tears. “Sorry, I’m getting emotional. So when they locked the people in the shed, I’d sneak them food. I just didn’t understand why Maura, who was part of our membership, had kids, all of a sudden was being forced to live like an animal and do the most degrading things. I didn’t understand why .” Sarah is wailing, as if she’s been transported back to the little girl she was at the time. “What had she done? I didn’t see anything, and I grew up around them. So from that moment you lived in fear, because you could be the next person on the chopping block.” Sarah eventually discovered that Maura’s sin was that she had refused to beat her children. Continue reading...
More seaside crime-solving as Grace returns with a Grantchester crossover. Plus, more fun in the Bake Off tent as Jojo Sima and Babátúndé Aléshé are among the celebs getting their hands floury. Here’s what to watch this evening 8pm, ITV1 Who knows why some detective shows last and others don’t? Being low-key, a bit old-fashioned and without distinguishing features hasn’t stopped this John Simm veh...
More seaside crime-solving as Grace returns with a Grantchester crossover. Plus, more fun in the Bake Off tent as Jojo Sima and Babátúndé Aléshé are among the celebs getting their hands floury. Here’s what to watch this evening 8pm, ITV1 Who knows why some detective shows last and others don’t? Being low-key, a bit old-fashioned and without distinguishing features hasn’t stopped this John Simm vehicle, set in and around Brighton, surviving to a sixth season. Episode one is an inessential-ITV-crime-drama crossover, as Grantchester’s Rishi Nair appears as the husband of a woman who has vanished, for reasons not initially clear. J ack Seale Continue reading...
Leonid Radvinsky’s widow has been left with a crucial role in deciding what happens to the business that made her husband a billionaire Yekaterina Chudnovsky, online biographies say, is a mother-of-four who “enjoys spending time with her family and teaching them the importance of giving back and helping others”. They add that Ukrainian-born Chudnovsky, known as Katie, finds sanctuary in walks on t...
Leonid Radvinsky’s widow has been left with a crucial role in deciding what happens to the business that made her husband a billionaire Yekaterina Chudnovsky, online biographies say, is a mother-of-four who “enjoys spending time with her family and teaching them the importance of giving back and helping others”. They add that Ukrainian-born Chudnovsky, known as Katie, finds sanctuary in walks on the beach. In interviews, Chudnovsky has spoken warmly about her commitment to philanthropy, her dedication to support cancer research and her work as a lawyer for an unnamed global technology firm. Pornography is never mentioned. Continue reading...
The ever-changing menu is a paean to things that make me happy The Wellington has been drawing crowds to Margate of late, due to a recent takeover by chef Billy Stock and front-of-house queen Ellie Topham. Stock is formerly of nearby Sète , which I loved very much , and also cooked at London’s The Marksman and St John , which is a pedigree that says: “I like feeding people proper food, not fancy, ...
The ever-changing menu is a paean to things that make me happy The Wellington has been drawing crowds to Margate of late, due to a recent takeover by chef Billy Stock and front-of-house queen Ellie Topham. Stock is formerly of nearby Sète , which I loved very much , and also cooked at London’s The Marksman and St John , which is a pedigree that says: “I like feeding people proper food, not fancy, itsy-bitsy suggestions of food.” So with that, I set off to the south-east Riviera on a day when the weather ranged from hailstones to simply freezing gales. Much is said about Margate being freshly desirable, hip and charming, but on a freezing day at the tail end of winter, this seaside town certainly tests the prescription of one’s rose-tinted spectacles. None of the down-from-London brigade cries, “Let’s move to Margate!” as icy hail plink-plonks off their nose while they cower in the door of the Turner Contemporary . On days like this, you need a centuries-old pub like the Wellington just off the promenade in the Old Town, to dry off with a stiff negroni and a bowl of French onion soup with beef short ribs. Or maybe a slab of country-style terrine with cornichons and, if you’re driving, one of their very good non-alcoholic shrubs: when we visited, there was a lovely, sharp but not-too-tart rhubarb one on offer. Continue reading...
The Other Bennett Sister reminded me of my own self-consciousness – and worry that girls still have to play down their cleverness To be a clever, bookish teenage girl is to spend a certain amount of time standing on the sidelines, feeling invisible to boys. When I was at school, there seemed to be a natural division: you could be smart or pretty, but you could not be both. Of course, there were gi...
The Other Bennett Sister reminded me of my own self-consciousness – and worry that girls still have to play down their cleverness To be a clever, bookish teenage girl is to spend a certain amount of time standing on the sidelines, feeling invisible to boys. When I was at school, there seemed to be a natural division: you could be smart or pretty, but you could not be both. Of course, there were girls who were indeed both, but they either intentionally dumbed themselves down or spent an inordinate amount of time trying to make themselves beautiful. (Perhaps other schools and other early-2000s teenagehoods were different, but that was the reality of mine.) The Other Bennet Sister – a new BBC costume adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel telling the story of Mary, the intelligent, bespectacled, painfully shy sister to Pride and Prejudice heroine Lizzy – sent me right back to that awkward age. That’s how vividly it conjures the extreme lack of confidence that can come from being sidelined, whether by one’s peers or, as in Mary’s case, one’s own mother. Watching Ella Bruccoleri’s excellent performance reunited me with those awful feelings of shyness and exclusion, of walking with your head down in the hope that no one notices you. “Why do you walk like that?” I remember a popular, vivacious girl in my year asking me, not unkindly. She couldn’t comprehend what it meant to walk with such a lack of confidence. I wished I could borrow even a pinch of hers. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist and author of Female, Nude Continue reading...