SON vs. AIT, AMCR, ATR, GEF, PKG, SEE, GPK, UFPT, AVY, and GEF.B
Should you be buying Sonoco Products stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Sonoco Products include Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Amcor (AMCR), AptarGroup (ATR), Greif (GEF), Packaging Corporation of America (PKG), Sealed Air (SEE), Graphic Packaging (GPK), UFP Technologies (UFPT), Avery Dennison (AVY), and Greif Bros. (GEF.B). These companies are all part of the "industrials" sector.
Sonoco Products vs. Its Competitors
Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON) and Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE:AIT) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.
77.7% of Sonoco Products shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Sonoco Products shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Applied Industrial Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Sonoco Products currently has a consensus price target of $57.63, indicating a potential upside of 23.35%. Applied Industrial Technologies has a consensus price target of $285.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.06%. Given Sonoco Products' higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Sonoco Products is more favorable than Applied Industrial Technologies.
Applied Industrial Technologies has a net margin of 8.61% compared to Sonoco Products' net margin of 8.35%. Applied Industrial Technologies' return on equity of 21.78% beat Sonoco Products' return on equity.
In the previous week, Applied Industrial Technologies had 16 more articles in the media than Sonoco Products. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for Applied Industrial Technologies and 6 mentions for Sonoco Products. Sonoco Products' average media sentiment score of 1.76 beat Applied Industrial Technologies' score of 0.99 indicating that Sonoco Products is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Applied Industrial Technologies has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Sonoco Products. Sonoco Products is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Applied Industrial Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Sonoco Products pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. Applied Industrial Technologies pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Sonoco Products pays out 38.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Applied Industrial Technologies pays out 18.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Sonoco Products has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Applied Industrial Technologies has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.
Sonoco Products has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Industrial Technologies has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Applied Industrial Technologies beats Sonoco Products on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SON and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Sonoco Products Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:SON) was last updated on 8/28/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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