Freight delivery company Landstar (NASDAQ: LSTR) reported Q1 CY2026 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations, with sales up 1.3% year on year to $1.17 billion. Its GAAP profit of $1.16 per share was 4% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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“The Landstar team of independent business owners and employees executed well in a dynamic transportation backdrop, with our network generating higher truck transportation revenues and increased BCO utilization year-over-year,” said Landstar President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Lonegro.

Company Overview

Covering billions of miles throughout North America, Landstar (NASDAQ: LSTR) is a transportation company specializing in freight and last-mile delivery services.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last five years, Landstar grew its sales at a weak 1.2% compounded annual growth rate. This was below our standards and is a poor baseline for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Landstar’s performance shows it grew in the past but relinquished its gains over the last two years, as its revenue fell by 2.8% annually.

We can dig further into the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segments, Van Equipment and Platform Equipment, which are 51.5% and 31.5% of revenue. Over the last two years, Landstar’s Van Equipment revenue (full truckload van transportation) averaged 3.6% year-on-year declines. On the other hand, its Platform Equipment revenue (full truckload trailer transportation) averaged 5.6% growth.

This quarter, Landstar reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 1.3% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 1.3%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 8.9% over the next 12 months, an improvement versus the last two years. This projection is above average for the sector and implies its newer products and services will catalyze better top-line performance.

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Operating Margin

Operating margin is one of the best measures of profitability because it tells us how much money a company takes home after procuring and manufacturing its products, marketing and selling those products, and most importantly, keeping them relevant through research and development.

Landstar was profitable over the last five years but held back by its large cost base. Its average operating margin of 6.2% was weak for an industrials business. This result isn’t too surprising given its low gross margin as a starting point.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Landstar’s operating margin decreased by 4.4 percentage points over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability. Landstar’s performance was poor no matter how you look at it - it shows that costs were rising and it couldn’t pass them onto its customers.

In Q1, Landstar generated an operating margin profit margin of 4.5%, up 1.1 percentage points year on year. The increase was encouraging, and because its gross margin actually decreased, we can assume it was more efficient because its operating expenses like marketing, R&D, and administrative overhead grew slower than its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Sadly for Landstar, its EPS declined by 9.5% annually over the last five years while its revenue grew by 1.2%. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded due to non-fundamental factors such as interest expenses and taxes.

We can take a deeper look into Landstar’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Landstar’s operating margin expanded this quarter but declined by 4.4 percentage points over the last five years. This was the most relevant factor (aside from the revenue impact) behind its lower earnings; interest expenses and taxes can also affect EPS but don’t tell us as much about a company’s fundamentals.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For Landstar, its two-year annual EPS declines of 25.4% show it’s continued to underperform. These results were bad no matter how you slice the data.

In Q1, Landstar reported EPS of $1.16, up from $0.85 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 4%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Landstar’s full-year EPS of $3.62 to grow 56.5%.

Key Takeaways from Landstar’s Q1 Results

We enjoyed seeing Landstar beat analysts’ adjusted operating income expectations this quarter. We were also happy its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, we think this was a solid quarter with some key areas of upside. The stock remained flat at $182.37 immediately following the results.

Big picture, is Landstar a buy here and now? If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).