KP Tissue IncKPT.TOCOMMENTJul 21, 2015Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 10, 2026. Market Open.
KPT is a $101.6M company that pays a high yield of 7.1%. Its valuation is decent, but its balance sheet has been contracting for several years now. It's considered a consumer staples name, but we are not very impressed by the fundamentals or financials. Decent growth is expected over the next two years, but we would probably wait to see if fundamentals materially improve before investing here, given its negative momentum and contracting fundamentals.
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The tissue space in general is struggling with pricing, probably as a result of over pricing in North America. Having a pure play in this area is not something you would want to do. Expects it will be challenged for the next couple of quarters. Prefers Cascades (CAS-T), which has an offset with container board/cardboard packaging.
As a hold for the next 5 years?On a total return basis, this is not as terrible as the stock price suggests. It has underperformed. There has always been something that pops up to hurt them over the past few years. It looks like pulp prices continue to go higher, so he doesn’t expect the best quarter in Q3. However, they have pricing power because their branded tissue toilet paper has been able to pass those price increases on to customers. He likes this for the 4.7% dividend. They have ambitious growth plans.
There are some certainties in life, and one of them is toilet paper. They are going to commission a new machine at their plant in Memphis Tennessee, which will increase output. It’s a competitive business. They do private label branding for the big box stores. Thinks earnings will come up and distribution will come up. Dividend yield of 4.8%.
Trading like it is a private label company, which is not the case, because they have significant branded products they sell in Canada. The previous quarter they had was pretty good, and have announced that they are raising prices. They are looking to add another private label machine and has also started another private label machine in Québec, which should improve margins. The knock against the company is that it is always next year’s story. 5% dividend yield.
Has underperformed. Thought they had a pretty good 1st quarter. The big issue is that they buy pulp in US dollars, the Cdn$ continues to go down and the input costs continue to go higher. Tried to offset this by raising prices, so we are not going to see the effect of this until the2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters. Pays a very nice dividend. The new plant in the US will be used to sell private label tissues to Wal-Mart (WMT-N) and have guided that by 2017 it will be filled up. They are actually looking to open up another plant, because capacity and demand is growing. He sees the potential for a dividend increase next year.