Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Packaging Corporation of America published the results on October 21, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Packaging Corporation of America reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and excluding special items, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• PCA bought the containerboard business of Greif, Inc. on September 2, 2025, so the year-ago quarter includes Greif for only one month.
• Special items in Q3 2026 were $0.11 per share: facility closure costs, acquisition and integration costs, a fire at a corrugated products facility and Wallula mill restructuring.

Source: Packaging Corporation of America Q3 2026 results, October 21, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Packaging Corporation of America splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Packaging Corporation of America's Packaging revenue was $2.4 billion in Q3 2026, up 13% from $2.1 billion in Q3 2025, 93% of total revenue.
• Packaging Corporation of America's Paper revenue was $163 million in Q3 2026, up 1% from $161 million in Q3 2025, 6% of total revenue.
• Packaging Corporation of America's Corporate and Other revenue was $24.5 million in Q3 2026, up 2% from $24.1 million in Q3 2025, under 1% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release (Mark W. Kowlzan, Chairman and CEO), Packaging Corporation of America said:

“Shipments per day are expected to be at or around last year's fourth quarter level with two fewer shipping days than the third quarter and total shipments are expected to be higher than the third quarter.”

“Containerboard production will be lower with maintenance outages at three of our mills, and mill maintenance outage expenses, including the impact on production volume from fourth quarter outages, will be significantly higher in the fourth quarter.”

“Considering these items, we expect fourth quarter earnings of $2.81 per share, excluding special items.”

Source: Packaging Corporation of America Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 21, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the PKG forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

Net sales and GAAP diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release. Q4 2025 EPS of $1.13 included Wallula mill restructuring charges; excluding special items it was $2.32.

Packaging Corporation of America's next report is expected around January 26, 2027, a date estimated from its reporting history that the company has not yet confirmed. This page will show Q3 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 21, 2026

Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) reported net sales of $2,601.7 million in Q3 2026, against $2,313.4 million a year earlier. The Packaging segment, containerboard mills and corrugated products plants, was $2,414.0 million of that. Paper, which makes uncoated freesheet communication papers, was $163.2 million, and Corporate and Other, mostly transportation assets and a timber procurement venture, was $24.5 million. (PCA Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; PCA Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026)

PCA said Packaging net sales rose $286 million, or 13.4%, because of higher volume from the acquired Greif operations ($175 million) and higher prices and mix ($117 million), partly offset by lower legacy volume ($6 million). The Greif deal, closed on September 2, 2025 for $1.8 billion in cash, added two containerboard mills with about 800,000 tons of capacity and eight sheet feeder and corrugated plants. (PCA Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Prices were higher across containerboard. PCA's domestic containerboard prices were 11.5% higher and export prices 12.2% higher than a year earlier. Total corrugated products shipments were up 10.6% per day, while shipments from the legacy PCA business were down 0.5%, and outside containerboard shipments fell 6.6% as more containerboard went into PCA's own box plants. (PCA Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Paper net sales rose $2 million, or 1.2%, on higher prices and mix ($6 million), partly offset by lower volume ($4 million); sales volume was down 2.5%. PCA's 10-K names ODP Corporation as the largest Paper customer, at 58% of Paper segment sales and 4% of consolidated sales in 2025, under a supply agreement that runs through December 31, 2026. (PCA Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; PCA Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; PCA Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026)

PCA's GAAP diluted EPS was $2.93 in Q3 2026 and its EPS excluding special items was $3.04, against $2.51 and $2.73 a year earlier. The $0.11 of special items covered facility closure costs ($0.05), acquisition and integration costs ($0.03), a fire at a corrugated products facility ($0.03) and Wallula mill restructuring. (PCA Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

By PCA's bridge, the $0.31 increase in EPS excluding special items came from $.24 of higher earnings from the acquired Greif operations and $.07 from the legacy business. Packaging price and mix added $.79, offset by higher labor and operating expense ($.28), freight ($.26), corporate and other expense ($.13) and fiber costs ($.12). Results were $.13 above PCA's own guidance of $2.91. (PCA Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Diluted weighted average shares were 89.0 million, against 89.7 million. PCA did not buy back shares in the quarter; over nine months it paid $58.8 million for 0.3 million shares, with $224.3 million left on its authorization. Net interest expense rose to $32.3 million from $19.3 million after the debt raised for Greif, and the effective tax rate was 25.9%. (PCA Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; PCA Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

PCA gives a single EPS figure for the next quarter, excluding special items, in each release. For Q4 2026 it expects $2.81 per share. CEO Mark W. Kowlzan said containerboard and corrugated prices should improve as earlier price increases are implemented, while maintenance outages at three mills, seasonally weaker corrugated mix, and higher freight, recycled fiber, wood fiber, chemical and energy costs weigh on the quarter. (PCA Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

PCA excludes special items from that figure because they are difficult to predict, and said it expects acquisition and integration costs and corrugated facility closure costs in the fourth quarter. (PCA Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Packaging Corporation of America, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Packaging Corporation of America's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning PKG is on is PKG a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the PKG forecast, and what the company does is on the Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Packaging Corporation of America published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.