Analyzing Grab (NASDAQ:GRAB) and Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR)

Landstar System (NASDAQ:LSTR) and Grab (NASDAQ:GRAB) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

Landstar System has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Grab has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Landstar System and Grab, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Landstar System	2	11	3	1	2.18
Grab	1	1	9	1	2.83

Landstar System currently has a consensus price target of $196.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.22%. Grab has a consensus price target of $6.11, suggesting a potential upside of 95.36%. Given Grab’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Grab is more favorable than Landstar System.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.9% of Landstar System shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.5% of Grab shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.7% of Landstar System shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Grab shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Landstar System and Grab”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Landstar System	$4.98 billion	1.15	$115.01 million	$3.86	43.69
Grab	$3.73 billion	3.43	$268.00 million	$0.06	52.08

Grab has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Landstar System. Landstar System is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Grab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Landstar System and Grab’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Landstar System	2.64%	20.84%	10.42%
Grab	15.97%	8.83%	4.92%

Summary

Grab beats Landstar System on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Landstar System

Landstar System, Inc. provides integrated transportation management solutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Transportation Logistics and Insurance. The Transportation Logistics segment offers a range of transportation services, including truckload and less-than-truckload transportation, rail intermodal, air cargo, ocean cargo, expedited ground and air delivery of time-critical freight, heavy-haul/specialized, U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico cross-border, intra-Mexico, intra-Canada, project cargo, and customs brokerage, as well as offers transportation services to other transportation companies, such as third party logistics and less-than-truckload services. It provides truck services through dry and specialty vans of various sizes, unsided/platform trailers, temperature-controlled vans, and containers; rail intermodal services through contracts with domestic and Canadian railroads, certain short-line railroads, and asset-based intermodal equipment; and domestic and international air and ocean services. This segment serves the automotive parts and assemblies, consumer durables, building products, metals, chemicals, foodstuffs, heavy machinery, retail, electronics, and military equipment industries. The Insurance segment provides risk and claims management services; and reinsures risks of the company's independent contractors. It markets its services through independent commission sales agents and third party capacity providers. Landstar System, Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

About Grab

Grab Holdings Limited engages in the provision of superapps in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The company offers its Grab ecosystem, a single platform with superapps for driver- and merchant-partners and consumers, that allows access to mobility, delivery, digital financial services, and enterprise sector offerings. Grab Holdings Limited is headquartered in Singapore.