Reviewing Yellow (NASDAQ:YELLQ) & Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR)

Yellow (NASDAQ:YELLQ) and Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR) are both transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Yellow and Landstar System’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Yellow	$5.24 billion	0.01	$21.80 million	($1.55)	-0.93
Landstar System	$7.44 billion	0.80	$430.91 million	$8.33	19.78

Landstar System has higher revenue and earnings than Yellow. Yellow is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Landstar System, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Yellow and Landstar System, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yellow	0	0	0	0	N/A
Landstar System	0	6	1	0	2.14

Landstar System has a consensus target price of $186.60, suggesting a potential upside of 13.24%. Given Landstar System’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Landstar System is more favorable than Yellow.

Risk & Volatility

Yellow has a beta of 2.82, meaning that its share price is 182% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Landstar System has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

35.7% of Yellow shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.5% of Landstar System shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Yellow shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Landstar System shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Yellow and Landstar System’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yellow	-1.65%	N/A	-3.49%
Landstar System	5.19%	31.06%	16.07%

Summary

Landstar System beats Yellow on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Yellow

Yellow Corporation does not have significant operations. Previously, the company provided various transportation services primarily in North America. The company primarily offered less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments and supply chain solutions to ship industrial, commercial, and retail goods. It also provided customer-specific logistics solutions, including truckload, residential, and warehouse solutions, as well as apparels, appliances, automotive parts, chemicals, food, furniture, glass, machinery, metal, metal products, non-bulk petroleum products, rubber, textiles, wood, and other manufactured products or components. In addition, the company offered specialized services, such as guaranteed expedited, time-specific delivery, cross-border, exhibit, product return, and government material shipment services; and consolidation and distribution, reverse logistics, and residential white glove services. As of December 31, 2022, it had a fleet of approximately 12,700 tractors comprising 11,700 owned and 1,000 leased tractors; and approximately 42,000 trailers consisting of 34,800 owned and 7,200 leased trailers. The company was formerly known as YRC Worldwide Inc. and changed its name to Yellow Corporation in February 2021. Yellow Corporation was founded in 1924 and is based in Nashville, Tennessee. On August 6, 2023, Yellow Corporation, along with its affiliates, filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

About Landstar System

Landstar System, Inc. provides integrated transportation management solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Transportation Logistics, and Insurance. The Transportation Logistics segment offers a range of transportation services, including truckload and less-than-truckload transportation, rail intermodal, air cargo, ocean cargo, expedited ground and air delivery of time-critical freight, heavy-haul/specialized, U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico cross-border, intra-Mexico, intra-Canada, project cargo, and customs brokerage, as well as offers transportation services to other transportation companies, such as third party logistics, small package and less-than-truckload service providers. It provides truck services through dry and specialty vans of various sizes, unsided/platform trailers, temperature-controlled vans, and containers; rail intermodal services through contracts with domestic and Canadian railroads; and domestic and international air and ocean services. This segment serves the automotive parts and assemblies, consumer durables, building products, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, heavy machinery, retail, electronics, and military equipment industries. The Insurance segment provides risk and claims management services; and reinsures risks of the company's independent contractors. The company markets its services through independent commission sales agents and third party capacity providers. Landstar System, Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.