Cardboard maker International Paper beats on Q4 earnings, stock jumps

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss fourth-quarter earnings for International Paper.

Video transcript

[AUDIO LOGO]

JULIE HYMAN: International Paper is rising this morning after topping fourth-quarter estimates. Its CEO says the company is well-positioned to navigate 2023 economic conditions. What is so interesting to me about the cardboard business, it doesn't really make paper anymore. It makes cardboard and makes pulp-- raw material to go into paper. It sells that for paper makers.

What's interesting here is you see the likes of a UPS, you see the likes of what we might be expecting from Amazon, where you have seen, maybe, a little bit of a decline in volumes, right, of stuff that gets packaged into cardboard. And yet International Paper here doing pretty well. Net sales were only up 9/10 of 1%, but packaging-- and packaging, I should say, was down by 2%.

But the raw material stuff did better, so you know-- and it sounds like the margins here are doing OK.

BRAD SMITH: So is what's net good for the environment, I guess, with less packaging, bad for International Paper, then?

JULIE HYMAN: In theory. But they're doing OK.

[LAUGHTER]

BRIAN SOZZI: I actually might order from Whole Foods. I love that packaging, Julie. Big fan. Big fan.

JULIE HYMAN: You're just teasing me because I said yesterday I don't like--

[BUZZER SOUND]

And, by the way, that's not made from paper. It's those, like, composite plastic bags. Yeah, yeah.

BRAD SMITH: Nobody likes the feel of those.

JULIE HYMAN: I'm glad you amuse yourself, Brian Sozzi.

BRIAN SOZZI: I do.