Financial Analysis: Pamt (NASDAQ:PAMT) and Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR)

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pamt	-4.45%	-2.58%	-1.07%
Landstar System	4.07%	19.56%	11.08%

Volatility and Risk

Pamt has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Landstar System has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

22.1% of Pamt shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.9% of Landstar System shares are held by institutional investors. 27.2% of Pamt shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Landstar System shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Pamt and Landstar System, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pamt	0	1	0	0	2.00
Landstar System	1	11	0	0	1.92

Pamt currently has a consensus target price of $16.50, indicating a potential upside of 27.61%. Landstar System has a consensus target price of $170.40, indicating a potential upside of 6.96%. Given Pamt’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Pamt is more favorable than Landstar System.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pamt and Landstar System”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pamt	$714.65 million	0.39	-$31.80 million	($1.46)	-8.86
Landstar System	$4.82 billion	1.17	$195.95 million	$5.52	28.86

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

Summary

Landstar System beats Pamt on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pamt

PAMT Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of truckload and logistics services through its subsidiaries. Its freight consists primarily of automotive parts, expedited goods, consumer goods, such as general retail store merchandise, and manufactured goods, such as heating and air conditioning units. The company was founded in June 1986 and is headquartered in Tontitown, AR.

About Landstar System

Landstar System, Inc. provides integrated transportation management solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. It 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 and less-than-truckload services. 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, certain short-line railroads, and asset-based intermodal equipment; 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. It 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.