R.R.Donnelley (RRD) is a printer at a crossroads, moving to enter the digital marketing world at as fast a pace as it can while not abandoning its bread-and-butter, print. As a result, analysts are wary of the immediate future of the firm and positive reviews of the stock are hard to come by.

R.R.Donnelley operates primarily in the printing industry, with products and related service offerings designed to offer customers complete solutions for communicating their messages to target audiences.

It operates in two segments, U.S. Print and Related Services and International. The U.S. segment includes the company’s U.S. printing operations, managed as one integrated platform, along with logistics, premedia, print management and other print related services. This segment’s products and related service offerings include magazines, catalogs, retail inserts, books, directories, financial printing and related services, direct mail, forms, labels, office products, statement printing, premedia and logistics services.

The segment accounted for approximately 74 percent of the company’s consolidated net sales in 2011.

The International segment includes the company’s non-U.S. printing operations in Asia, Europe, Latin America and Canada. This segment’s products and related service offerings include magazines, catalogs, retail inserts, books, directories, financial printing and related services, direct mail, forms, labels, packaging, manuals, statement printing, premedia and logistics services.

Additionally, this segment includes the company’s business process outsourcing and Global Turnkey Solutions operations. Business process outsourcing provides transactional print and outsourcing services, statement printing, direct mail and print management services through its operations in Europe, Asia and North America.

The International segment accounted for approximately 26 percent of consolidated net sales in 2011.

“The print and related services industry, in general, continues to have excess capacity and remains highly competitive,” management said in a recent filing. “Despite some consolidation in recent years, the printing industry remains highly fragmented.”

R.R.Donnelley has a market cap of $2.13 billion in a sector, commercial services and supplies, where the average company size is $1.61 billion. Its projected earnings per share growth for the coming year is 1.66 percent, compared to a sector average of 15.66 percent.

Target price

Analysts are positive on RRD, with buy or outperform calls from Standard & Poor’s Equity Research and Jefferson Research & Management.

“We expect RRD to gain market share by leveraging its geographic and product breadth, but we think its business model is undergoing a long-term secular shift as increased use of electronic media reduces the demand for financial and other printing,” S&P analysts wrote in early May.

“We see headwinds from what we view as a highly leveraged balance sheet and digestion of recent acquisitions. However, after a recent price decline, the shares have fallen well below our target price” of $17, they said.

R.R.Donnelley next reports on Aug. 1.