One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$45.20 our estimate vs market $38.63
Wall Street consensus: $55.31 (22.4% higher than our fair-value estimate)
15% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Silgan Holdings Inc.
SLGN · NYQ · Consumer Cyclical · Packaging & Containers
Current price
$38.63
52-week range
$35.68 - $49.55
Market cap
$4.08B
Balance sheet
Stretched
3.48x Stretched
Net debt $4.48B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 3.1% last year.
- Reward Returns 11.7% on equity, ahead of 20% of its peers.
- Risk Net debt grew 15.0% over 3 years.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 10.5% to 10.3% over 3 years.
What this company does
Silgan Holdings Inc.
Silgan Holdings makes the essential packaging for many items you buy, such as metal cans for vegetables and plastic bottles for salad dressing. The company primarily earns money by selling these containers and lids in bulk to the big brands that fill them with food and other household staples. Because people buy these basic goods consistently, Silgan often has predictable revenue (the total money a company brings in from sales), which can make its business more stable.
How the company got here
Silgan was started in 1987 by two former executives of a can company, Phil Silver and Greg Horrigan, who combined parts of their last names to create the company's name. They began by making metal food cans and grew quickly by buying other can-making companies. Over the years, Silgan used the steady cash from its can business to expand into making plastic containers and sophisticated dispensing systems, like pumps and sprayers. This strategy of using acquisitions (buying other companies) has transformed Silgan from a simple can manufacturer into a more diversified packaging supplier.
What it actually does
Silgan makes the rigid containers that hold and protect many well-known consumer products. You don't buy things directly from Silgan, but you've almost certainly used their products if you've eaten canned soup, used a spray cleaner, or squeezed a bottle of lotion. They create the metal cans, plastic bottles, and special caps and sprayers that other companies use to package their goods for sale in stores. Their packaging is designed for everyday essential items, from pet food to beauty products.
Metal Containers
This is Silgan's original and largest business, making it the biggest manufacturer of metal food cans in North America. This segment produces the steel and aluminum cans that food companies use to package things like soup, vegetables, fruit, and pet food. The customers are large food processors and brands who pay for these durable containers that keep food fresh without refrigeration. This part of the company is a mature and steady source of cash for the whole business.
Dispensing and Specialty Closures
This is Silgan's fastest-growing and most profitable segment. It makes a wide variety of engineered caps and sprayers, such as lotion pumps, perfume sprayers, and the trigger nozzles on cleaning products. Companies in the beauty, personal care, and home cleaning industries buy these items to top off their bottles and cans. This business is a major growth engine for Silgan because these components are more complex and specialized than a simple can.
Custom Containers
This segment creates plastic containers that are specifically designed for a customer's product. Think of the uniquely shaped bottles for shampoos, conditioners, or certain food items like peanut butter and salad dressing. Companies in the food, personal care, and healthcare markets pay Silgan to design and manufacture these specialized plastic bottles and jars. This is a smaller but important part of Silgan's business that focuses on tailored packaging solutions.
What management is betting on now
Management's main focus is to continue shifting the company towards more specialized and profitable products, like those in the Dispensing and Specialty Closures segment. They are doing this by acquiring (buying) companies that make these more advanced packaging systems, which offer better growth opportunities than traditional metal cans. At the same time, they aim to keep the metal container business efficient and generating cash to fund this expansion. The company is also focused on sustainability, working to use more recycled materials and make its packaging more recyclable.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$252.43M
FY2024 Q4
$865.01M
FY2025 Q1
$-766.33M
FY2025 Q2
$-294.22M
FY2025 Q3
$260.79M
FY2025 Q4
$1.22B
FY2026 Q1
$-882.02M
FY2026 Q2
$-258.52M
Revenue
$1.64B
Net income
$75.76M
Diluted EPS
0.72
Operating cash flow
$-194.28M
Free cash flow
$-258.52M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.56B
Net income
$63.04M
Diluted EPS
0.60
Operating cash flow
$-799.57M
Free cash flow
$-882.02M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.47B
Net income
$18.20M
Diluted EPS
0.18
Operating cash flow
$1.29B
Free cash flow
$1.22B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.01B
Net income
$113.29M
Diluted EPS
1.06
Operating cash flow
$340.89M
Free cash flow
$260.79M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.54B
Net income
$88.94M
Diluted EPS
0.83
Operating cash flow
$-221.45M
Free cash flow
$-294.22M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.47B
Net income
$67.96M
Diluted EPS
0.63
Operating cash flow
$-683.40M
Free cash flow
$-766.33M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.41B
Net income
$45.06M
Diluted EPS
0.42
Operating cash flow
$935.76M
Free cash flow
$865.01M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.75B
Net income
$100.05M
Diluted EPS
0.93
Operating cash flow
$313.02M
Free cash flow
$252.43M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $45.20 vs current price $38.63
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $55.31 (22.4% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $45.20 a share — about 17.0% above today's price of $38.63, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $4.5B. Interest coverage 3.5x.
Net debt
$4.48B
Interest coverage
3.48x
Silgan Holdings Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 3.5 times over.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
SLGN
BASELINE
Silgan Holdings Inc.
Total debt $4.83B Interest coverage 3.48x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $6.27B Interest coverage 4.11x +18% vs SLGN Carries about 1.2x more debt cushion than SLGN.
Total debt $1.41B Interest coverage 9.69x +179% vs SLGN Carries about 2.8x more debt cushion than SLGN.
Total debt $7.58B Interest coverage 4.43x +27% vs SLGN Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than SLGN.
Total debt $4.99B Interest coverage 1.76x -49% vs SLGN Carries about 2.0x less debt cushion than SLGN.
What you should know
The case for and against SLGN
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 3.1% last year.
-
Returns 11.7% on equity, ahead of 20% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 15.0% over 3 years.
-
Operating margin compressed from 10.5% to 10.3% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
15.15x
Forward P/E
9.44x
P/B
1.72x
P/S
0.61x
EV/EBITDA
8.76x
PEG ratio
0.79x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
17.1%
Operating margin
10.3%
Net margin
4.0%
ROE
11.7%
ROA
4.2%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
2.03x
Current ratio
1.27x
Quick ratio
0.70x
Total debt
$4.83B
Total cash
$351.53M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$6.68B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
3.4%
EPS TTM
2.55
EPS 5Y CAGR
-4.2%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$640.84M
Free CF TTM
$422.75M
FCF margin
6.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.2%
Payout ratio
32.2%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-01