Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Seeking Alpha: Old Dominion's Performance Argues For Paying Up For Quality

It has been a while since Old Dominion (NASDAQ:ODFL) has looked cheap by conventional valuation standards, but then the company has logged a strong stretch of better-than-average performance. Almost a year ago, I thought that Old Dominion was a good stock to consider despite its valuation and the company's strong operating performance has led to better than 30% appreciation since then - well ahead of other trucking peers like Con-way (NYSE:CNW), ArcBest (NASDAQ:ARCB), YRC Worldwide (NASDAQ:YRCW), and Saia (NASDAQ:SAIA).

Old Dominion remains what it has been for some time - an exceptionally well-run trucking company that still has the opportunity to take share from less efficient rivals. The same is true on the valuation side, as this is a stock that is more challenging to argue is undervalued. Paying a low teens multiple to EBITDA doesn't seem unreasonable if expectations of mid-teens EBITDA growth prove accurate, but I can understand why some investors may hesitate to pay a premium for a company that is in a competitive, regulated, and cyclical industry.

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Old Dominion's Performance Argues For Paying Up For Quality

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