High Yield Paper & Packaging: 2Q26 Earnings Preview: Five Storylines to Watch

Research evidence excerpt

High Yield Paper & Packaging: 2Q26 Earnings Preview: Five Storylines to Watch

J P M O R G A N North America Credit Research

20 July 2026

High Yield Paper & Packaging

2Q26 Earnings Preview: Five Storylines to Watch

North America Corporate Credit -

Paper & Packaging (HY)

Arjun Chandar AC

(1-212) 834-4047

arjun.c.chandar@jpmorgan.com

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

We preview calendar 2Q26 reporting season, including five themes to watch

in HY Paper/Packaging. Earnings season kicks off this afternoon with CCK

reporting after the market close on Monday, July 20. HY Paper/Packaging prints

in 1Q26 were mixed as we saw beverage can and food can companies remain

resilient with glass packaging, paperboard and pulp/paper companies exhibiting

weakness due to soft demand trends and rising input costs. The biggest question

on investors’ minds heading into Q2 is the effect (if any) of input cost inflation on

margins and demand (we have seen material volatility in oil, gas and aluminum

prices in particular that should carry implications across the Paper and Packaging

sector). We hosted our 2026 Midyear Outlook webinar earlier this month, please

see our Paper and Packaging slides here as well as a replay of the session here.

Table 1: 2QCY26 High Yield Paper & Packaging Earnings Calendar and Consensus Estimates

Rating Leverage 2QCY26 Street Ests 2Q26 Calendar

High Yield Paper & Packaging Recommendation Ticker Moody's S&P Gross Net Debt/TEV Revenue EBITDA Date Bef/Aft Mkt

Covered Metal, Rigid Plastic and Glass Packaging

Ball Corp Neutral BALL Ba1 BB+ 3.8x 3.4x 33.0% 3,662.0 537.2 4-Aug Bef-Mkt

Crown Holdings Overweight CCK Ba3 BB- 3.0x 2.7x 33.5% 3,370.0 548.2 20-Jul Aft-Mkt

Silgan Holdings Neutral SLGN Ba2 BB- 5.1x 4.6x 50.7% 1,620.0 252.8 29-Jul Bef-Mkt