Packaging Corporation Of America (PKG) has reported a 13.21 percent rise in profit for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2017. The company has earned $117.40 million, or $1.24 a share in the quarter, compared with $103.70 million, or $1.09 a share for the same period last year. On the other hand, adjusted net income for the quarter stood at $119.60 million, or $1.27 a share compared with $105.60 million or $1.11 a share, a year ago.

Revenue during the quarter grew 9.67 percent to $1,536.50 million from $1,401 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter expanded 69 basis points over the previous year period to 22.03 percent. Total expenses were 86.78 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 87.09 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 31 basis points in operating margin to 13.22 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $203.10 million, compared with $180.80 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted operating income for the quarter stood at $206.60 million compared to $183.60 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted operating margin improved 34 basis points in the quarter to 13.45 percent from 13.10 percent in the last year period.

Commenting on the quarter, Mark W. Kowlzan, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Our results were driven by strong demand and higher prices for containerboard and corrugated products as well as from the benefits of our recent TimBar and Columbus Container acquisitions. We continued to implement our announced containerboard and corrugated products price increases throughout the quarter, which helped us offset higher inflation in many of our manufacturing and converting costs and higher freight costs. The integration of our recent corrugated plant acquisitions has gone very well and is ahead of schedule, and our containerboard inventory levels were below those of a year ago and year-end levels despite the additional containerboard inventory requirements of our acquisitions."