The Packaging They Didn’t Want

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So, Howard Capital Management Group, they quietly slipped out of Graphic Packaging. Twenty-point-nine-two million dollars worth of slipping, to be precise. It’s funny, isn’t it? All that cardboard, all those folding cartons, just…gone from their portfolio. Like a bad houseguest who finally takes the hint. I always find it a little unsettling when I see these big numbers floating around. It’s not the money itself, really. It’s the sheer volume of stuff that must be involved. Mountains of it, probably. Enough to build a small, temporary city.

They held 1,069,223 shares. That’s a lot of packaging. It used to be 1.32% of their holdings. Which, honestly, sounds like a remarkably specific amount of faith to place in the structural integrity of boxes. I’ve made less calculated bets on grocery store sushi.

Their top holdings now? Nvidia, Apple, Google, that SPY thing…the usual suspects. Solid, dependable, things you can at least understand. Graphic Packaging, though? It felt…riskier. Like investing in the hope that people will continue to buy things. Which, of course, they do. But it’s a fragile hope, isn’t it? Especially when the stock price is down 43.51% over the last year. Trailing the S&P by 60 points. That’s not just underperforming, that’s actively losing the race. It’s like watching your aunt try to parallel park.

Here are the numbers, if you’re into that sort of thing:

Metric Value
Price (as of 2026-01-16) $15.28
Market Capitalization $4.51 billion
Revenue (TTM) $8.61 billion
Net Income (TTM) $511.00 million

Graphic Packaging makes the stuff that protects other stuff. Boxes, cups, lids. They sell it to food companies, beverage companies, anyone who needs something contained. It’s a good business, in theory. Everyone needs packaging. But what happens when people start…not buying as much? Or when the cost of making the packaging goes up? That’s what seems to be happening. Volumes down 2%, sales slipping 1%. Adjusted EBITDA down 11%. It’s the sound of a carefully constructed system starting to wobble.

And then there’s the debt. Net leverage climbed to 3.9 times adjusted EBITDA. They’re building a new facility in Waco, which is good for the future, I guess, but also means more debt right now. It’s like deciding to remodel the kitchen while simultaneously losing your job. A bold move, certainly. Possibly reckless.

Howard Capital seems to prefer liquidity, pricing power, and earnings durability. Which is a fancy way of saying they want things that won’t suddenly lose half their value. They’re not looking for a turnaround story. They want a steady, predictable income stream. And honestly, who can blame them? I tried a turnaround story once. It involved a vintage typewriter and a lot of misplaced optimism. It did not end well.

So, Graphic Packaging is down, Howard Capital is out, and I’m left wondering about all those empty boxes. Where do they go? Do they have a retirement home for discarded packaging? A cardboard sanctuary? It’s a silly thought, I know. But sometimes, the smallest things are the most unsettling. Like the quiet disappearance of a twenty-point-nine-two million dollar investment.

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2026-01-17 07:23