Eco-Friendly Packaging Shift Will Drive Long-Term Upside Potential

Catalysts

About Karat Packaging

Karat Packaging provides disposable food service products with a focus on sustainable, eco-friendly packaging solutions for restaurant chains, distributors and online customers.

What are the underlying business or industry changes driving this perspective?

• Rapid conversion by national and regional restaurant chains from plastic to paper bags is expected to scale Karat's new bag category from an initial 20 million to 25 million dollars with one chain to more than 100 million dollars of incremental annual revenue, materially lifting total sales.
• Expanding penetration with large chain accounts, including multiple additional chains already testing Karat's paper and SOS bags, creates a sticky, recurring demand base that can support sustained double digit volume growth and higher earnings power.
• Shift toward eco-friendly, branded packaging that enhances customer experience positions Karat as a preferred partner for premium products, supporting a richer product mix and structurally higher gross margins over time.
• Ongoing diversification of sourcing, including higher domestic production and better vendor pricing under a more stable currency backdrop should reduce tariff and freight pressure and gradually rebuild gross margin and net margin toward historical highs.
• Leveraging online channels and a robust 2026 new business pipeline while operating with a strong balance sheet and no operating company debt gives Karat ample capacity to fund growth initiatives and accretive capital returns, supporting earnings per share expansion.

Assumptions

This narrative explores a more optimistic perspective on Karat Packaging compared to the consensus, based on a Fair Value that aligns with the bullish cohort of analysts. How have these above catalysts been quantified?

• The bullish analysts are assuming Karat Packaging's revenue will grow by 10.3% annually over the next 3 years.
• The bullish analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 6.7% today to 6.9% in 3 years time.
• The bullish analysts expect earnings to reach $41.9 million (and earnings per share of $2.37) by about January 2029, up from $30.3 million today. The analysts are largely in agreement about this estimate.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the price target of the more bullish analyst cohort, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 21.5x on those 2029 earnings, up from 14.8x today. This future PE is greater than the current PE for the US Trade Distributors industry at 20.5x.
• The bullish analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to grow by 0.31% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 8.35%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Risks

What could happen that would invalidate this narrative?

• Persistent or escalating import duties and tariffs on Asian sourced products could keep import costs elevated, locking gross margin closer to the mid 30 percent range or lower instead of recovering toward historical high 30 percent levels. This would constrain net income and earnings growth.
• The strategy to pre purchase inventory ahead of anticipated business expansion exposes Karat to demand or customer specific shortfalls, which could lead to excess or obsolete inventory that requires write downs and would pressure gross profit and net margins over time.
• Heavy reliance on large national and regional chain accounts for growth in the new paper bag category creates concentration risk. The loss, consolidation, or renegotiation of a few major contracts could materially slow revenue growth and reduce earnings leverage.
• Secular weakness in the retail channel and only modest growth in online sales relative to chain and distributor channels suggest that Karat may struggle to fully benefit from long term ecommerce and consumer direct trends. This would limit diversification of revenue and dampen margin expansion.
• Expanding capital returns through a high regular dividend and a share repurchase program, while also funding potential mergers, acquisitions, and capacity shifts to domestic production, could strain internal cash generation. This would leave less flexibility to absorb cyclical downturns or cost shocks and thereby increase downside risk to earnings.

Valuation

How have all the factors above been brought together to estimate a fair value?

• The assumed bullish price target for Karat Packaging is $35.0, which represents up to two standard deviations above the consensus price target of $28.5. This valuation is based on what can be assumed as the expectations of Karat Packaging's future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors from analysts on the bullish end of the spectrum.
  
• However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of $35.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just $22.0.
  
• In order for you to agree with the more bullish analyst cohort, you'd need to believe that by 2029, revenues will be $608.2 million, earnings will come to $41.9 million, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 21.5x, assuming you use a discount rate of 8.3%.
  
• Given the current share price of $22.37, the analyst price target of $35.0 is 36.1% higher.
  
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.