Wall Street Analysts' Outlook on International Paper

By Ken Smith • Monday, August 05 07:52 • Permanent Link

One of the standouts of today's morning trading session has been International Paper, which logged a -1.5% drop and underperformed the S&P 500 by 1.0%. The Paper & Paper Products stock is now trading at $45.94 per share and is -6.45% below its average target price of $49.11. Analysts have set target prices ranging from $41.43 to 56.0 dollars per share, and have given the stock an average rating of hold.

International Paper's short interest can give us an idea of what future price movements the market expects from the stock. The short interest is the percentage of shares that are tied up in short positions, which will provide gains to the investor only if the stock price falls. The stock's short interest is 10.7% which seems to indicate a mixed sentiment on INTERNATIONAL PAPER

Short selling involves borrowing shares and then selling them at current market prices. In the successful version of the strategy, the shares are purchased at a lower price at some time in the future. The investor then returns the shares to the lender, and keeps the profit made on the sell/buy transaction.

Another way to gauge the sentiment on International Paper is to look at the percentage of institutions that are invested in the stock. In this case, 91.1% of the shares are held by pension, mutual, and hedge funds, which shows that these institutions probably have strong confidence in the stock.

If institutions are invested in a particular stock, it shows in most cases that they have performed quality research and concluded that it is a good investment. In some cases, however, increases in institutional ownership could be a sign of a takeover attempt or proxy fight, which can actually injure share prices. Also, institutions are not infallible, and can certainly make miscalculations -- often with spectacular results.

Overall, there is mixed market sentiment towards International Paper because of an analyst consensus of some upside potential, a hold rating, an above average percentage of its shares sold short, and a significant number of institutional investors. Investors should not base their decisions on market sentiment only, they should also be aware of a stock's fundamentals before committing.

At a glance, here are some essential statistics you may want to know about IP:

It has trailing 12 month earnings per share (EPS) of $1.31 per share
International Paper has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 35.1 while the S&P 500 average is 28.21
The company has a Price to Book (P/B) ratio of 1.86 in contrast to the S&P 500's average ratio of 4.71
International Paper is a Basic Materials company, and the sector average P/E and P/B ratios are 23.66 and 2.69 respectively

The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.