Playing the cyclical stock game can drive you nuts, which is probably why there's a small library of investment books out there telling you, the individual investor, not to bother. But that's also what makes a stock like containerboard producer Packaging Corp (NYSE:PKG) interesting to me: If other people are cringing or gnashing their teeth, I might be able to find value.

Although containerboard price increases have been pushed through, they're not yet making a positive dent on Packaging Corp's bottom line. Revenue in this quarter was up 4%, as corrugated product shipments rose almost 5% (as reported) and containerboard production climbed more than 2%.

Higher expenses mitigated the greater revenue from pricing and volume. The company estimated that higher energy costs sapped $0.05 from the quarter (year over year), while higher labor and benefit expense drained another $0.03. All in all, then, gross margins slipped slightly, and net income fell about 30%.

Looking into the next quarter, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that the company is putting in another $50-per-ton price increase on containerboard. The bad news is that the second quarter is when the company does plant maintenance, and that downtime will hurt results by about $0.04. In addition, the benefits of the price hike won't be seen until the second half of the year. Today's higher fuel prices aren't exactly good news, either. Though the company isn't too reliant on oil and gas for energy, higher oil prices do lead to higher shipping and transportation costs.

This stock has done a whole lot of nothing in the past year, but I'm still optimistic. Packaging Corp has good exposure to a market with improving fundamentals, a healthy balance sheet, inherently lower production costs in a high-cost energy world, and a nice dividend at present. Investors with a little more risk appetite might want to consider rival Smurfit-StoneContainer (NASDAQ:SSCC), but at today's prices, I'm still inclined to think that Packaging Corp is worth a serious look.

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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).