TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS) & Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE:PKG) Critical Contrast

Packaging Corporation of America (NYSE:PKG) and TriMas (NASDAQ:TRS) are both materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

Packaging Corporation of America has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TriMas has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Packaging Corporation of America and TriMas, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Packaging Corporation of America	0	3	6	1	2.80
TriMas	0	1	3	0	2.75

Packaging Corporation of America currently has a consensus target price of $264.57, suggesting a potential upside of 14.03%. TriMas has a consensus target price of $41.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.15%. Given Packaging Corporation of America’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Packaging Corporation of America is more favorable than TriMas.

Dividends

Packaging Corporation of America pays an annual dividend of $6.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. TriMas pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Packaging Corporation of America pays out 77.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. TriMas pays out 0.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Packaging Corporation of America and TriMas’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Packaging Corporation of America	7.25%	18.94%	8.10%
TriMas	104.22%	6.41%	3.71%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Packaging Corporation of America and TriMas”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Packaging Corporation of America	$8.99 billion	2.30	$774.10 million	$7.70	30.13
TriMas	$1.04 billion	1.33	$120.14 million	$24.03	1.61

Packaging Corporation of America has higher revenue and earnings than TriMas. TriMas is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Packaging Corporation of America, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

89.8% of Packaging Corporation of America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.4% of TriMas shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of Packaging Corporation of America shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 17.5% of TriMas shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Packaging Corporation of America beats TriMas on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Packaging Corporation of America

Packaging Corporation of America engages in the production of container products. It operates through the following segments: Packaging, Paper, and Corporate and Other. The Packaging segment offers a variety of corrugated packaging products, such as conventional shipping containers. The Paper segment manufactures and sells a range of papers, including communication-based papers, and pressure sensitive papers. The Corporate and Other segment focuses on transportation assets, such as rail cars, and trucks. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, IL.

About TriMas

TriMas Corporation engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of products for consumer products, aerospace, and industrial markets worldwide. The company operates through Packaging, Aerospace, and Specialty Products segments. The Packaging segment offers dispensing products, such as foaming and sanitizer pumps, lotion and hand soap pumps, beverage dispensers, perfume sprayers, and nasal and trigger sprayers; polymeric and steel caps and closures comprising food lids, flip-top and beverage closures, child resistance caps, drum and pail closures, and flexible spouts; polymeric jar products; integrated dispensers; bag-in-box products; and consumable vascular delivery and diagnostic test components under the Rieke, Taplast, Affaba & Ferrari, Intertech, Omega, and Rapak brands. The Aerospace segment provides fasteners, collars, blind bolts, rivets, ducting, and connectors for air management systems, and other highly-machined parts and components to original equipment manufacturers, supply chain distributors, and tier one suppliers, as well as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO)/aftermarket providers; and military and defense aerospace applications and platforms under the Monogram Aerospace Fasteners, Allfast Fastening Systems, Mac Fasteners, TFI Aerospace, RSA Engineered Products, and Martinic Engineering brands. The Specialty Products segment offers steel cylinders for use in the transportation, storage, and dispensing of compressed gases under the Norris Cylinder brand; natural gas powered wellhead engines, compressors, and replacement parts for oil and natural gas production, and other industrial and commercial markets under the Arrow brand; and spare parts for various industrial engines. It sells its products through a direct sales force, third-party agents, and distributors. TriMas Corporation was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.