150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60601; 312-346-6600
Founded: 1926
Employees: 25,900; 1,937 in Illinois
Year-end: Dec. 31
Foreign sales: 29 percent of $7.3 billion
Chief executive
Roger W. Stone, 61, since 1979
Cash compensation: $790,000, up 8 percent
Options granted: $1,082,781; none in 1994
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: None
Shares owned: 1,705,087 of 99.1 million
Largest shareholder: Wellington Management Co./The Vanguard Group, 9.6 percent
Stock 365-day close
High: $24.625
Low: $12.375
May 1, 1996: $16.75
May 1, 1996, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased May 1, 1995: $879.00
Purchased May 1, 1991: $1,096.06
It will be hard for the multinational paper producer to top its 1995 performance–a 28 percent increase in sales, to $7.3 billion, and turning a $204 million loss in 1994 into a $255 million net profit. That performance helped Stone move into or expand in Venezuela, Australia, Mexico, Britain, France and China.
But the bull market for paper products has tailed off due to weaker industrial growth and increased production capacity. An upturn in paper demand is expected by midyear, the company says, helped in part by the U.S. presidential election and the Summer Olympics.
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A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business reporting staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of May 1, 1996. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find.
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1995, along with the change from the prior year. The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, as reported in the proxy statement, and the change from the previous or prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the current value of options granted is based on the assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which those calculations are based is May 1. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Dow Jones News/Retrieval, an on-line service of Dow Jones & Co., New York.
– Bloomberg Business News, New York.
– TMS Stocks, a subsidiary of Tribune Media Services Inc., a unit of Tribune Co., Chicago.
– Morningstar Inc., Chicago.
– “First Chicago Guide,” published by Scholl Communications, Deerfield.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
