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If You Invested $1000 in Old Dominion Freight Line a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, also plays a factor in investing, especially with particular tech giants, as well as popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to ODFL for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Old Dominion Freight Line's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Old Dominion Freight Line's main business drivers.

Old Dominion Freight Line, founded in 1934, is a leading LTL company. The company based in Thomasville, NC, offers LTL services on a regional, inter-regional and national basis. The services are inclusive of ground and air expedited transportation, apart from consumer household pickup and delivery through a single integrated organization.

The company also offers LTL services across North America through strategic alliances. Additionally, it provides value-added services like container drayage, truckload brokerage, supply chain consulting and warehousing. The company operates multiple service and maintenance centers.

While bulk of the centers is owned by the company, the remaining are leased. The service centers are endowed with responsibility pertaining to the pickup and delivery of freight locally.  Moreover, the maintenance centers are responsible for performing operations that are related to the routine and preventive maintenance as well as repairs of the company’s equipment.

Old Dominion’s infrastructure allows for smoother freight transportation offering next-day and second-day service through each of its regions across the United States. Over the past several years, the company has opened numerous service centers which have increased capacity across its service network. This in turn places the company for future growth prospects.

The company constantly works towards improving customer service by increasing on-time performance and reducing cargo claims. It primarily focuses on increasing shipments and tonnage growth in order to generate higher revenues.

The company faces primary competition from regional, inter-regional and national LTL carriers. It also faces secondary competition from truckload carriers, small package carriers, airfreight carriers and railroads.

Owing to the betterment in scenario in 2022, total revenues increased 19.2% year over year to  $6.26 billion. LTL service revenues were up 19.3% and accounted for bulk of the top line (98.67%). Remainder of the top line was generated from non-LTL revenues.

Notably, LTL tons increased 0.9% year over year with LTL shipments rising 0.8%. Moreover, LTL weight per shipment, excluding fuel surcharges, increased 0.1% in 2022.

Moreover, the company’s fiscal year coincides with the calendar year.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Old Dominion Freight Line ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in November 2013 would be worth $11,959.42, or a gain of 1,095.94%, as of November 23, 2023, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

In comparison, the S&P 500 gained 152.48% and the price of gold went up 53.90% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for ODFL.

Old Dominion's efforts to enhance shareholder value are impressive. In 2022, ODFL paid dividends of $134.48 million and repurchased shares worth $1,277.21 million. ODFL’s board has raised its quarterly cash dividend by 33.3% to 40 cents per share, effective from the first quarter of 2023. During first nine months of 2023, ODFL paid out dividends worth $131.5 million and repurchased shares worth $368.1 million. However, high capital expenditures might be an overhang. For 2023, ODFL expects its aggregate capital expenditures to be approximately $720 million. Of the total, $260 million is anticipated to be invested in real estate and service center expansion projects, $385 million in tractors and trailers, and $75 million in information technology and other assets. Lackluster less-than-truckload (LTL) revenues represent a huge concern.

The stock is up 8.82% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 9 higher, for fiscal 2023. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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