Stocks · Basic Materials · Paper, Lumber & Forest Products
International Paper Company IP
$31.97 -1.69% Close, Oct 2, 2026 · NYSE · Market cap $16.93B
Next earnings report: Oct 28, 2026
Scroll or pinch to zoom, drag to move. Daily prices adjusted for splits. Markers: E = earnings (green beat, red miss), S = split, D = dividend.
Three things to know
- Operating margin narrowed to -11.5% from 1.2% a year earlier.
- Over the past year the stock returned -30.9%, behind the S&P 500 by 45.9 percentage points.
- Revenue over the last four quarters was $24.20B, up 10.3% from a year earlier, slowing from 25.5% a quarter earlier.
PromtFinance scores
Each score is a percentile within the Basic Materials sector (0–100). Under each score: how the stock ranks in its sector on every component. As of Oct 5, 2026.
How fast revenue, earnings and cash flow are growing.
- Revenue growth (TTM, YoY)Top 34%
- Revenue growth, 3-year CAGRTop 25%
- Revenue growth accelerationBottom 6%
Returns on capital, margins, earnings quality and balance-sheet strength.
- Return on invested capitalBottom 18%
- Gross marginTop 45%
- Operating marginBottom 12%
- Accruals (lower is better)Top 8%
- Interest coverBottom 11%
How cheap the shares are relative to earnings, cash flow and their own history.
- Earnings yieldBottom 10%
- Free-cash-flow yieldBottom 48%
- EBITDA / enterprise valueBottom 21%
- Sales / enterprise valueTop 26%
Strength and persistence of the price trend, including versus the S&P 500.
- 12-month return excluding last monthBottom 14%
- 6-month returnBottom 46%
- 1-year return vs S&P 500Bottom 14%
- Distance from 52-week highBottom 38%
- Trend checklist (0–4)Top 42%
Earnings surprises and analyst sentiment (estimate-revision history is being collected).
- Average EPS surprise, last 4 quartersBottom 25%
- Consecutive EPS beatsTop 32%
- Share of analysts rating BuyBottom 47%
- Upside to consensus price targetTop 29%
Low volatility, shallow drawdowns, low market sensitivity and modest leverage.
- Volatility, 60 days (lower is better)Bottom 49%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 yearsTop 49%
- Beta vs S&P 500 (lower is better)Top 36%
What changed
Latest four quarters versus the same period a year earlier (growth: versus one quarter earlier).
| Measure | Before | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 25.5% | 10.3% | ↓ |
| Gross margin | 28.3% | 27.7% | ↓ |
| Operating margin | 1.2% | -11.5% | ↓ |
| FCF margin | -0.5% | 2.0% | ↑ |
Fundamental momentum
| Measure | Now (TTM) | Year / quarter before | Sector rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth (TTM, YoY) | 10.3% | 25.5% | ↓ | Top 34% |
| Gross margin | 27.7% | 28.3% | ↓ | Top 45% |
| Operating margin | -11.5% | 1.2% | ↓ | Bottom 12% |
| Net margin | -14.2% | -0.1% | ↓ | — |
| Free-cash-flow margin | 2.0% | -0.5% | ↑ | — |
| Return on invested capital | -7.7% | — | Bottom 18% | |
| Revenue growth, 3-year CAGR | 5.6% | — | Top 25% |
Quality of earnings and balance sheet
- Accruals (net income − OCF) / assetsLower is better; high accruals can signal weaker earnings quality.
- -16.7%
- Stock-based compensation / revenueA cost to shareholders through dilution.
- 0.0%
- Receivables growth vs revenue growthReceivables growing much faster than sales can be a warning.
- -28.8 pp
- Interest cover (operating income / interest)How many times operating profit covers interest.
- -8.8×
Shareholder returns
- Dividend yield (dividends paid, TTM)
- 5.78%
- Net buyback yield (TTM)
- 0.19%
- Shareholder yield
- 5.98%
- Share count change, 1 year
- -0.6%
- Share count change, 3-year CAGR
- +15.2%
Shareholder yield = dividends + net buybacks over the last four quarters, divided by market cap.
Based on the four quarters through Jun 30, 2026 (filed Aug 5, 2026).
Earnings and expectations
Earnings momentum
- Consecutive EPS beats
- 2
- Beats in the last 8 reports
- 3 of 8
- Average EPS surprise, last 4
- -21.1%
- Average 2-day reaction, last 8
- -4.0%
- Positive 20 days after report
- 3 of 8
Analysts
- Consensus price target
- $50.14
- Target vs current price
- +56.8%
- Analysts with a rating
- 29
- Share rating Buy or Strong Buy
- 55%
- Consensus rating
- Buy
How the stock reacted to recent reports
| Report date | EPS surprise | 2 days | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 30, 2026 | +233.7% | +1.2% | -0.9% | -2.9% | — |
| Apr 30, 2026 | +2.3% | -9.4% | -0.2% | -0.8% | +26.3% |
| Jan 29, 2026 | -128.6% | -6.0% | +7.7% | +4.0% | -21.3% |
| Oct 30, 2025 | -191.8% | -12.7% | -17.9% | -11.0% | -4.6% |
| Jul 31, 2025 | -48.5% | -12.8% | -13.6% | -9.8% | -8.4% |
| Apr 30, 2025 | -39.1% | -4.1% | -6.7% | +0.2% | +16.9% |
| Jan 30, 2025 | -166.7% | -1.6% | -7.1% | -3.0% | -18.3% |
| Oct 31, 2024 | +69.2% | +13.3% | +20.0% | +19.1% | +18.3% |
Returns from the close before each report. Past reactions do not determine future ones.
Earnings history
| Report date | EPS | Estimate | Surprise | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 30, 2026 | $0.04 | -$0.03 | +233.7% | $6.00B |
| Apr 30, 2026 | $0.15 | $0.15 | +2.3% | $5.97B |
| Jan 29, 2026 | -$0.08 | $0.28 | -128.6% | $6.01B |
| Oct 30, 2025 | -$0.43 | $0.47 | -191.8% | $6.22B |
| Jul 31, 2025 | $0.20 | $0.39 | -48.5% | $6.77B |
| Apr 30, 2025 | $0.23 | $0.38 | -39.1% | $5.90B |
| Jan 30, 2025 | -$0.02 | $0.03 | -166.7% | $4.58B |
| Oct 31, 2024 | $0.44 | $0.26 | +69.2% | $4.69B |
Valuation in context
| Multiple | Now | 5-year median | 5-year percentile | Sector rank (cheapness) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P/E (forward) | 23.9× | — | — | — |
| EV / Sales | 1.07× | — | — | Top 26% |
| Free-cash-flow yield | 2.91% | — | — | Bottom 48% |
| Earnings yield | -20.39% | — | — | Bottom 10% |
P/E over the past five years
Range 6.8× – 63.8× since Jun 30, 2021. Each point: price on the filing date divided by trailing-twelve-month EPS known then.
Technical state
Trend checklist
- ✗ Price above 20-day average
- ✗ Price above 50-day average
- ✗ Price above 200-day average
- ✓ 50-day average above 200-day
- ✗ MACD histogram positive
Trend quality
- Days above the 50-day average
- 0
- Days above the 200-day average
- 0
- 50-day average slope (20 days)
- -3.2%
- 200-day average slope (20 days)
- -1.0%
- Distance from 50-day average
- -16.5%
- Distance from 200-day average
- -15.9%
- RSI (14)
- 28.4
- Relative volume
- 1.04×
Risk and drawdowns
- Volatility, 60 days (annualized)
- 42.4%
- Volatility vs own 5-year history
- 83th percentile · High for this stock
- Beta vs S&P 500 (2 years, weekly)
- 0.85
- Correlation with S&P 500
- 0.31
- Current drawdown from 1-year high
- -35.0%
- Maximum drawdown, 3 years
- -51.1%
Largest declines in the past six years
| From peak | To low | Decline | Length | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 4, 2021 | Jun 1, 2023 | -52.3% | 501 days | Not yet recovered |
| Jan 6, 2021 | Feb 4, 2021 | -11.5% | 20 days | 18 days (Mar 3, 2021) |
Declines of 10% or more from a closing high, measured on daily closes.
Financial statements
- Market cap
- $16.93B
- EPS, diluted (TTM)
- -$6.52
- Revenue (TTM)
- $24.20B
- Dividend yield
- 5.79%
- 52-week range
- $29.26 – $50.25
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $19.36B | $21.16B | $18.92B | $18.62B | $24.90B |
| Gross profit | $5.53B | $6.02B | $3.85B | $5.24B | $7.35B |
| Operating income | $1.47B | $1.75B | $1.19B | $476.0M | -$2.82B |
| Net income | $1.75B | $1.50B | $302.0M | $557.0M | -$3.52B |
| EPS (diluted) | $4.47 | $4.10 | $0.87 | $1.57 | -$6.71 |
| Q3 2024 | Q4 2024 | Q1 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $4.69B | $4.58B | $5.90B | $6.77B | $6.22B | $6.01B | $5.97B | $6.00B |
| Net income | $150.0M | -$147.0M | -$105.0M | $75.0M | -$1.10B | -$2.38B | $60.0M | -$12.0M |
| EPS (diluted) | $0.42 | -$0.42 | -$0.24 | $0.14 | -$2.09 | -$4.52 | $0.11 | -$0.02 |
| FY 2021 | FY 2022 | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating cash flow | $2.03B | $2.17B | $1.83B | $1.68B | $1.70B |
| Capital expenditure | -$549.0M | -$931.0M | -$1.14B | -$921.0M | -$1.86B |
| Free cash flow | $1.48B | $1.24B | $692.0M | $757.0M | -$159.0M |
| Dividends paid | -$780.0M | -$673.0M | -$642.0M | -$643.0M | -$977.0M |
| Net share buybacks | -$839.0M | -$1.28B | -$218.0M | -$23.0M | -$65.0M |
Cash outflows are shown as negative numbers.
- Cash and short-term investments
- $726.0M
- Total assets
- $36.52B
- Total liabilities
- $22.07B
- Total debt
- $9.69B
- Net debt
- $8.96B
- Shareholders’ equity
- $14.46B
As of Jun 30, 2026 (filed Aug 5, 2026).
Dividends
| Ex-date | Amount | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 14, 2026 | $0.46 | Sep 15, 2026 |
| May 22, 2026 | $0.46 | Jun 12, 2026 |
| Feb 23, 2026 | $0.46 | Mar 17, 2026 |
| Nov 14, 2025 | $0.46 | Dec 16, 2025 |
| Aug 15, 2025 | $0.46 | Sep 16, 2025 |
| May 23, 2025 | $0.46 | Jun 13, 2025 |
| Feb 24, 2025 | $0.46 | Mar 17, 2025 |
| Nov 15, 2024 | $0.46 | Dec 16, 2024 |
Short interest
- Shares sold short
- 46,194,579
- Days to cover
- 9.21
- Change vs previous report
- +3.0%
FINRA short interest, settlement date Sep 15, 2026.
Stock splits
- Oct 1, 2021
- 132-for-125
- Jul 2, 2014
- 507-for-500
- Sep 18, 1995
- 2-for-1
- May 20, 1987
- 2-for-1
- Nov 19, 1962
- 51-for-50