By Connor Hart

Sonoco Products backed its full-year outlook, as Chief Executive Howard Coker said the company is well positioned to weather the evolving geopolitical landscape.

Still, the packaging company on Tuesday said profit fell in the first quarter, as sales missed Wall Street's expectations.

Sonoco posted a profit of $54.4 million, or 55 cents a share, for its three months ended March 30, compared with $65.2 million, or 66 cents a share, in last year's comparable quarter.

Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings came in at $1.38, below the $1.41 that analysts polled by FactSet expected.

Revenue jumped 31% to $1.71 billion, missing the $2.04 billion that analysts modeled.

Sales across the Hartsville, S.C., company's consumer packaging unit surged 83% to $1.07 billion. The gain was partially offset by its industrial paper packaging segment, where sales fell 6% to $558 million.

Coker said his belief that the company is well positioned stems in part from its manufacturing network, which he said is designed to serve local markets, thereby reducing its exposure to cross-border disruptions and tariffs.

The company's business model also allows for pricing adjustments if necessary to counter tariff-related cost increases.

"Finally, we believe our transformed portfolio is significantly more resilient, with over two-thirds of our sales now coming from consumer food packaging, a segment that has historically demonstrated strong performance across economic cycles," he said.

Sonoco backed its outlook for the year, calling for adjusted per-share earnings of $6 to $6.20, as well as adjusted Ebitda--or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization--of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion. Analysts expect adjusted earnings of $5.92 a share and adjusted Ebitda of $1.32 billion.

The company additionally said it completed the $1.8 billion sale of its thermoformed and flexibles packaging business on April 1, having used the proceeds to pay down debt.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 29, 2025 17:03 ET (21:03 GMT)

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