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2 Truck Stocks That Continue to Be in Focus Despite Industry Challenges
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The Zacks Transportation-Truck industry faces headwinds from tariff-induced economic uncertainties, weak freight rates, driver shortages and inflation-induced woes.
The industry demonstrates resilience despite macroeconomic challenges causing uncertainty in demand, especially for companies prioritizing growth and operational efficiency. Among the companies in the industry that are likely to survive the challenges are Marten Transport (MRTN - Free Report) and PAMT CORP (PAMT - Free Report) .
Industry Description
The Zacks Transportation - Truck industry houses truck operators transporting freight to diverse customers, mainly across North America. These companies provide full-truckload or less-than-truckload (LTL) services over the short, medium or long haul. The range of trucking services these companies provide includes dry-van, dedicated, refrigerated, flatbed and expedited. Some companies have an extensive fleet of company-owned tractors and trucks and independent contractor trucks. Besides trucking, most entities offer logistics and intermodal services as well as value-added services like container drayage, truckload brokerage, supply-chain consulting and warehousing. A few also offer asset-light services to other third-party logistics companies in the transportation sector.
4 Trends Shaping the Future of the Trucking Industry
Supply-Chain Disruptions & Weak Freight Rates: Lingering supply-chain disruptions continue to dent stocks in the industry. Below-par freight rates are also hurting the industry’s prospects. Highlighting the weak freight demand, the Cass Freight Shipments Index declined 5.3% year over year in March. This measure has deteriorated year over year in each of the past eight months, which confirms the overall declining trend.
Focus on Cost Cuts to Drive the Bottom Line: Despite signs of cooling inflation, we are by no means out of the woods. The hotter-than-expected inflation readings in the past few months substantiate our view. We note that the industry has been experiencing significant levels of inflation, including higher prices for labor, freight and fuel. The industry players are focusing on cost-cutting measures and making efforts to improve productivity and efficiency, to mitigate high expenses and a weaker-than-expected demand scenario.
Prolonged Truck-Driver Shortage: The persistent driver shortage in the trucking industry is exacerbating supply-chain challenges across the United States. Driver scarcity issues limit trucking capacity, making it difficult for trucking companies to meet increased freight demand. American Trucking Associations’ Association’s chief economist, Bob Costello, expects the trucking industry to be short of more than 160,000 drivers by 2030.
Tariff Turmoil: The current administration is focused on protectionism that restricts international trade to help domestic industries. Tariff tensions are heating up, with new tariffs levied by the U.S. federal government, which has impacted the United States’ biggest trading partners — Canada, Mexico, and China . With retaliatory tariffs against the United States, trade tensions are escalating. This trade war is expected to result in increased volatility and uncertainty going forward. The tariff turmoil is hurting global trade. The slowdown of the same is likely to hurt the industry players.
Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Dull Prospects
The Zacks Transportation - Truck industry is a 16-stock group within the broader Zacks sector. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #244, which places it in the bottom 1% of 246 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, the average of the Zacks Rank of all member stocks, indicates dismal near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
The industry’s position in the bottom 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of a negative earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Looking at the aggregate earnings estimate revisions, it appears that analysts are gradually losing confidence in this group’s earnings growth potential. The industry's earnings estimate for 2025 has decreased 42.7% on a year-over-year basis.
Before we present a few stocks from the industry that you may want to buy or hold on to, let’s take a look at the industry’s recent stock market performance and the valuation picture.
Truck Industry Underperforms S&P 500 and Sector
The Zacks Transportation-Truck industry has lagged the Zacks S&P 500 composite and the Transportation sector over the past year.
The industry has plunged 30.6% over this period against the S&P 500's appreciation of 8.3% and the broader sector’s decline of 17.4%.
One-Year Price Performance
Truck Industry's Current Valuation
Based on the trailing 12-month EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), a commonly used multiple for valuing trucking stocks, the industry is currently trading at 13.64X compared with the S&P 500’s 15.2X. It is above the sector’s EV/EBITDA of 8.82X.
Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 19.57X and as low as 7.86X, with the median being 12.59X, as the chart below shows.
Enterprise Value-to-EBITDA Ratio (TTM)
2 Transport Truck Stocks to Keep An Eye On
Headquartered in Mondovi, WI, Marten Transport offers a network of refrigerated and dry truck-based transportation capabilities across its five distinct business platforms — Truckload, Dedicated, Intermodal, Brokerage and MRTN de Mexico.
MRTN’s cost-control efforts are impressive. MRTN currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2025 earnings has been revised 1 cent upward over the past 30 days.
PAMT CORP is a holding company that owns subsidiaries engaged in providing truckload dry van carrier services, transporting general commodities throughout the continental United States, as well as in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
PAM has experienced growth not only by significantly expanding its customer base but also through acquisitions. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.
Price and Consensus: PAMT
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2 Truck Stocks That Continue to Be in Focus Despite Industry Challenges
The Zacks Transportation-Truck industry faces headwinds from tariff-induced economic uncertainties, weak freight rates, driver shortages and inflation-induced woes.
The industry demonstrates resilience despite macroeconomic challenges causing uncertainty in demand, especially for companies prioritizing growth and operational efficiency. Among the companies in the industry that are likely to survive the challenges are Marten Transport (MRTN - Free Report) and PAMT CORP (PAMT - Free Report) .
Industry Description
The Zacks Transportation - Truck industry houses truck operators transporting freight to diverse customers, mainly across North America. These companies provide full-truckload or less-than-truckload (LTL) services over the short, medium or long haul. The range of trucking services these companies provide includes dry-van, dedicated, refrigerated, flatbed and expedited. Some companies have an extensive fleet of company-owned tractors and trucks and independent contractor trucks. Besides trucking, most entities offer logistics and intermodal services as well as value-added services like container drayage, truckload brokerage, supply-chain consulting and warehousing. A few also offer asset-light services to other third-party logistics companies in the transportation sector.
4 Trends Shaping the Future of the Trucking Industry
Supply-Chain Disruptions & Weak Freight Rates: Lingering supply-chain disruptions continue to dent stocks in the industry. Below-par freight rates are also hurting the industry’s prospects. Highlighting the weak freight demand, the Cass Freight Shipments Index declined 5.3% year over year in March. This measure has deteriorated year over year in each of the past eight months, which confirms the overall declining trend.
Focus on Cost Cuts to Drive the Bottom Line: Despite signs of cooling inflation, we are by no means out of the woods. The hotter-than-expected inflation readings in the past few months substantiate our view. We note that the industry has been experiencing significant levels of inflation, including higher prices for labor, freight and fuel. The industry players are focusing on cost-cutting measures and making efforts to improve productivity and efficiency, to mitigate high expenses and a weaker-than-expected demand scenario.
Prolonged Truck-Driver Shortage: The persistent driver shortage in the trucking industry is exacerbating supply-chain challenges across the United States. Driver scarcity issues limit trucking capacity, making it difficult for trucking companies to meet increased freight demand. American Trucking Associations’ Association’s chief economist, Bob Costello, expects the trucking industry to be short of more than 160,000 drivers by 2030.
Tariff Turmoil: The current administration is focused on protectionism that restricts international trade to help domestic industries. Tariff tensions are heating up, with new tariffs levied by the U.S. federal government, which has impacted the United States’ biggest trading partners — Canada, Mexico, and China . With retaliatory tariffs against the United States, trade tensions are escalating. This trade war is expected to result in increased volatility and uncertainty going forward. The tariff turmoil is hurting global trade. The slowdown of the same is likely to hurt the industry players.
Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Dull Prospects
The Zacks Transportation - Truck industry is a 16-stock group within the broader Zacks sector. The industry currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #244, which places it in the bottom 1% of 246 Zacks industries.
The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, the average of the Zacks Rank of all member stocks, indicates dismal near-term prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
The industry’s position in the bottom 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries is a result of a negative earnings outlook for the constituent companies in aggregate. Looking at the aggregate earnings estimate revisions, it appears that analysts are gradually losing confidence in this group’s earnings growth potential. The industry's earnings estimate for 2025 has decreased 42.7% on a year-over-year basis.
Before we present a few stocks from the industry that you may want to buy or hold on to, let’s take a look at the industry’s recent stock market performance and the valuation picture.
Truck Industry Underperforms S&P 500 and Sector
The Zacks Transportation-Truck industry has lagged the Zacks S&P 500 composite and the Transportation sector over the past year.
The industry has plunged 30.6% over this period against the S&P 500's appreciation of 8.3% and the broader sector’s decline of 17.4%.
One-Year Price Performance
Truck Industry's Current Valuation
Based on the trailing 12-month EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), a commonly used multiple for valuing trucking stocks, the industry is currently trading at 13.64X compared with the S&P 500’s 15.2X. It is above the sector’s EV/EBITDA of 8.82X.
Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 19.57X and as low as 7.86X, with the median being 12.59X, as the chart below shows.
Enterprise Value-to-EBITDA Ratio (TTM)
2 Transport Truck Stocks to Keep An Eye On
Headquartered in Mondovi, WI, Marten Transport offers a network of refrigerated and dry truck-based transportation capabilities across its five distinct business platforms — Truckload, Dedicated, Intermodal, Brokerage and MRTN de Mexico.
MRTN’s cost-control efforts are impressive. MRTN currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2025 earnings has been revised 1 cent upward over the past 30 days.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
Price and Consensus: MRTN
PAMT CORP is a holding company that owns subsidiaries engaged in providing truckload dry van carrier services, transporting general commodities throughout the continental United States, as well as in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
PAM has experienced growth not only by significantly expanding its customer base but also through acquisitions. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.
Price and Consensus: PAMT