The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Jan. 12, edition that CIBC World Markets analyst Hamir Patel continues to favour the packaging names over wood/building products. The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Patel has upgraded his recommendation for Cascades to "outperformer" from "neutral" with a $17 share target, up from $14. Analysts on average target the shares at $15.30. Mr. Patel says in a note: "For Cascades, as we noted in late November, a successful January containerboard price hike would represent substantial upside to consensus estimates. ... We have raised our 2025 EBITDA estimate on the company by 13 per cent (now higher than consensus by over 15 per cent), reflecting our assumption of a $50/ton increase being realized in H1/24. The company's open-market volumes (50 per cent of containerboard mix) should see the full effect of a benchmark price increase within 30 days of the index moving higher, while its integrated volumes (50 per cent of containerboard mix) are subject to a longer lag. Benchmark pricing changes generally take between four and six months to flow through to the company's index-contracted business."