Head-To-Head Survey: U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) and Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR)

U-Haul (NYSE:UHAL) and Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

3.6% of U-Haul shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.0% of Landstar System shares are held by institutional investors. 43.8% of U-Haul shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Landstar System shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
U-Haul	1.05%	0.81%	0.30%
Landstar System	2.64%	20.84%	10.42%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for U-Haul and Landstar System, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
U-Haul	1	0	1	1	2.67
Landstar System	2	11	3	1	2.18

U-Haul presently has a consensus target price of $85.00, indicating a potential upside of 49.68%. Landstar System has a consensus target price of $191.14, indicating a potential upside of 12.84%. Given U-Haul’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe U-Haul is more favorable than Landstar System.

Volatility & Risk

U-Haul has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Landstar System has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares U-Haul and Landstar System”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
U-Haul	$6.04 billion	1.83	$83.13 million	$0.14	405.64
Landstar System	$4.74 billion	1.21	$115.01 million	$3.86	43.88

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

About U-Haul

AMERCO operates as a do-it-yourself moving and storage operator for household and commercial goods in the United States and Canada. The company’s Moving and Storage segment rents trucks, trailers, portable moving and storage units, specialty rental items, and self-storage spaces primarily to the household movers; and sells moving supplies, towing accessories, and propane. It also provides uhaul.com, an online marketplace that connects consumers to independent Moving Help service providers and independent self-storage affiliates; auto transport and tow dolly options to transport vehicles; and specialty boxes for dishes, computers, and sensitive electronic equipment, as well as tapes, security locks, and packing supplies. This segment rents its products and services through a network of approximately 2,065 company operated retail moving stores and 20,100 independent U-Haul dealers. As of March 31, 2020, it had a rental fleet of approximately 176,000 trucks, 127,000 trailers, and 41,000 towing devices; and 1,745 self-storage locations with approximately 774,000 rentable storage units. The company’s Property and Casualty Insurance segment offers loss adjusting and claims handling services. It also provides moving and storage protection packages, such as Safemove and Safetow packages, which offer moving and towing customers with a damage waiver, cargo protection, and medical and life insurance coverage; Safestor that protects storage customers from loss on their goods in storage; Safestor Mobile, which protects customers stored belongings; and Safemove Plus, which provides rental customers with a layer of primary liability protection. The company’s Life Insurance segment provides life and health insurance products primarily to the senior market through the direct writing and reinsuring of life insurance, medicare supplement, and annuity policies. AMERCO was founded in 1945 and is based in Reno, Nevada.

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.