Expeditors International of Washington (EXPD) versus FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) Head-To-Head Contrast

Expeditors International of Washington (NASDAQ: EXPD) and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) are both large-cap transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitabiliy, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Expeditors International of Washington and FedEx Corporation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Expeditors International of Washington	6.87%	23.01%	15.25%
FedEx Corporation	4.97%	22.19%	7.10%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Expeditors International of Washington and FedEx Corporation, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Expeditors International of Washington	2	5	2	0	2.00
FedEx Corporation	0	4	19	0	2.83

Expeditors International of Washington currently has a consensus target price of $57.25, suggesting a potential downside of 3.13%. FedEx Corporation has a consensus target price of $221.88, suggesting a potential upside of 4.23%. Given FedEx Corporation’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe FedEx Corporation is more favorable than Expeditors International of Washington.

Volatility and Risk

Expeditors International of Washington has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FedEx Corporation has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Expeditors International of Washington and FedEx Corporation’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Expeditors International of Washington	$6.22 billion	1.71	$711.85 million	$2.35	25.15
FedEx Corporation	$60.32 billion	0.96	$8.01 billion	$11.06	19.25

FedEx Corporation has higher revenue and earnings than Expeditors International of Washington. FedEx Corporation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Expeditors International of Washington, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Expeditors International of Washington pays an annual dividend of $0.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. FedEx Corporation pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Expeditors International of Washington pays out 35.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. FedEx Corporation pays out 18.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Expeditors International of Washington has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years and FedEx Corporation has increased its dividend for 22 consecutive years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.1% of Expeditors International of Washington shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.4% of FedEx Corporation shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Expeditors International of Washington shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.7% of FedEx Corporation shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

FedEx Corporation beats Expeditors International of Washington on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

Expeditors International of Washington Company Profile

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. is a logistics company. The Company is a third-party logistics provider, and purchases cargo space from carriers, including airlines and ocean shipping lines on a volume basis and resells that space to its customers. The Company provides a range of customer solutions, such as order management, time-definite transportation, warehousing and distribution, temperature-controlled transit, cargo insurance and customized logistics solutions. In addition, the Company’s Project Cargo unit handles special project shipments that move through a single method or combination of air, ocean, and/or ground transportation. The Company’s services include airfreight services, ocean freight and ocean services, and customs brokerage and other services. The Company operates along five geographic areas: the Americas; North Asia; South Asia; Europe, and the Middle East, Africa and India.

FedEx Corporation Company Profile

FedEx Corporation (FedEx) provides a portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services through companies competing collectively, operating independently and managed collaboratively, under the FedEx brand. The Company’s segments include FedEx Express, TNT Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight and FedEx Services. The FedEx Express segment offers a range of the United States domestic and international shipping services for delivery of packages and freight. TNT Express segment collects, transports and delivers documents, parcels and freight on a day-definite or time-definite basis. The FedEx Ground segment provides business and residential money-back guaranteed ground package delivery services. The FedEx Freight segment offers less-than-truckload (LTL) freight services. The FedEx Services segment provides its other companies with sales, marketing, information technology, communications, customer service and other back-office support.