One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$67.39 our estimate vs market $16.69
Wall Street consensus: $16.00 (-76.3% lower than our fair-value estimate)
75% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc.
ULH · NMS · Industrials · Trucking
Current price
$16.69
52-week range
$11.73 - $25.80
Market cap
$440.08M
Balance sheet
Stretched
1.23x Concerning
Net debt $818.21M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
3 Risks
2 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
- Reward Dividend yield is 2.5% with 18-year payout history.
- Risk Net debt grew 118.7% over 3 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -15.1% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
What this company does
Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc.
Universal Logistics Holdings is a transportation company that acts as the shipping and handling department for other large businesses, especially in the automotive and retail industries. It earns money by managing key steps in its customers' supply chains (the entire journey of a product from raw material to the final consumer), from warehousing parts to trucking finished goods. This means the company's financial health is often directly connected to the success of the major industries it serves.
How the company got here
Founded in 1981, the company started as Universal Truckload Services, Inc., focusing on traditional trucking. Over the years, it expanded its services to become a more comprehensive logistics provider. A key turning point was in 2016 when it changed its name to Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc. to reflect its broader range of services beyond just truckload transportation. The company has grown by acquiring other businesses, which has helped it diversify its customer base and service offerings, particularly in the intermodal and contract logistics spaces.
What it actually does
Think of Universal Logistics Holdings as a company that helps other businesses move their goods and manage their supply chains (the entire process of making and selling goods). They offer a variety of transportation and logistics solutions across the United States, Mexico, Canada, and Colombia. This means they can handle everything from trucking and warehousing to more complex services that are deeply integrated into a customer's manufacturing process. They serve a wide range of industries including automotive, retail, and manufacturing.
Contract Logistics
This is the company's largest and most profitable segment. Here, Universal provides dedicated services to businesses, often on-site at their customer's facilities. This can include managing a customer's warehouse, handling materials, and providing short-haul transportation of goods. Essentially, businesses pay Universal to become a crucial part of their internal logistics operations, often under contracts that last for a year or more.
Intermodal
This segment focuses on moving shipping containers. When goods arrive at a port on a ship or at a rail yard on a train, this part of the business arranges for a truck to pick up the container and take it to its final destination. This service is crucial for companies that import goods. Customers, such as steamship lines and railroad companies, pay for these local and regional transportation services.
Trucking
This is the company's more traditional trucking business. It involves transporting a wide variety of goods for different customers, such as automotive parts, building materials, and consumer products. This segment uses different types of trucks, including flatbeds for large items and refrigerated trucks for temperature-sensitive goods. Customers pay to have their freight moved from one point to another.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on becoming more deeply embedded in their customers' supply chains, rather than just providing basic transportation. They are also concentrating on specialized, high-value freight, such as hauling components for the wind energy sector, to improve profitability even when the overall freight market is weak. Additionally, management is looking to grow both organically (by selling more services to existing customers) and through further strategic acquisitions.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q4
$18.95M
FY2025 Q1
$31.73M
FY2025 Q2
$-58.55M
FY2025 Q3
$-28.59M
FY2025 Q4
$14.27M
FY2026 Q2
$23.83M
FY2026 Q3
$27.14M
Revenue
$379.32M
Net income
$26.19M
Diluted EPS
0.99
Operating cash flow
$40.45M
Free cash flow
$27.14M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$367.57M
Net income
$-3.51M
Diluted EPS
-0.13
Operating cash flow
$33.40M
Free cash flow
$23.83M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$374.02M
Net income
$-39.43M
Diluted EPS
-1.50
Operating cash flow
$47.12M
Free cash flow
$14.27M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$396.79M
Net income
$-74.77M
Diluted EPS
-2.84
Operating cash flow
$25.90M
Free cash flow
$-28.59M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$393.79M
Net income
$8.32M
Diluted EPS
0.32
Operating cash flow
$25.71M
Free cash flow
$-58.55M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$382.39M
Net income
$6.01M
Diluted EPS
0.23
Operating cash flow
$84.31M
Free cash flow
$31.73M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$465.13M
Net income
$20.18M
Diluted EPS
0.76
Operating cash flow
$59.74M
Free cash flow
$18.95M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $67.39 vs current price $16.69
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $16.00 (-76.3% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $67.39 a share — about 303.8% above today's price of $16.69, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $818.2M. Interest coverage 1.2x.
Net debt
$818.21M
Interest coverage
1.23x
Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 1.2 times over. and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
ULH
BASELINE
Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc.
Total debt $838.52M Interest coverage 1.23x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $324.43M Interest coverage 1.70x +39% vs ULH Carries about 1.4x more debt cushion than ULH.
Total debt $146.40M Interest coverage -5.38x -100% vs ULH This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with ULH.
Total debt $945.79M Interest coverage 1.43x +17% vs ULH Carries about 1.2x more debt cushion than ULH.
Total debt $459.76M Interest coverage 8.06x +558% vs ULH Carries about 6.6x more debt cushion than ULH.
What you should know
The case for and against ULH
2 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Free cash flow was positive in 6/10 years.
-
Dividend yield is 2.5% with 18-year payout history.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 118.7% over 3 years.
-
Return on equity was -15.1% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Operating margin compressed from 11.9% to 1.0% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
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Forward P/E
14.51x
P/B
0.78x
P/S
0.29x
EV/EBITDA
7.15x
PEG ratio
3.73x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
19.1%
Operating margin
1.0%
Net margin
-6.0%
ROE
-15.1%
ROA
1.1%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.49x
Current ratio
1.20x
Quick ratio
1.10x
Total debt
$838.52M
Total cash
$20.31M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$1.52B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-2.9%
EPS TTM
-3.47
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$146.88M
Free CF TTM
$-41.13M
FCF margin
-2.7%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.5%
Payout ratio
18.2%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-01