Old Dominion Freight Line Stock at 27% Discount, Worth Buying?

November 6th, 2025 by Trefis Team
ODFL: Old Dominion Freight Line logo
ODFL
Old Dominion Freight Line

Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) stock deserves your consideration. Why? Because you get high margins – reflective of pricing power and cash generation capacity – for a discounted price. Here is some data.

  • Revenue Growth: Old Dominion Freight Line saw growth of -5.5% LTM and -1.9% last 3 year average, but this is not a growth story
  • Recent Profitability: Nearly 26.1% operating cash flow margin and 25.4% operating margin LTM.
  • Long-Term Profitability: About 26.9% operating cash flow margin and 27.3% operating margin last 3 year average.
  • Available At Discount: At P/S multiple of 5.3, ODFL stock is available at a 27% discount vs 1 year ago.

While revenue growth helps, this is not a growth perspective. Pricing power and high margins generate consistent, predictable profits and cash flows, which reduce risk and allow capital to be reinvested. Market tends to reward that.

As a quick background, Old Dominion Freight Line provides less-than-truckload motor carrier services across the U.S. and North America, operating a large fleet of tractors and trailers for efficient freight transportation.

  ODFL S&P Median
Sector Industrials –
Industry Cargo Ground Transportation –
PS Ratio 5.3 3.2
PE Ratio 27.1 23.8
   
LTM* Revenue Growth -5.5% 5.6%
3Y Average Annual Revenue Growth -1.9% 5.3%
   
LTM* Operating Margin 25.4% 18.8%
3Y Average Operating Margin 27.3% 18.2%
LTM* Op Cash Flow Margin 26.1% 20.4%
3Y Average Op Cash Flow Margin 26.9% 19.8%
   
DE Ratio 0.6% 21.0%

*LTM: Last Twelve Months

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But do these numbers tell the full story? Read Buy or Sell ODFL Stock to see if Old Dominion Freight Line still has an edge that holds up under the hood.

Equities is one thing, but we do more. Is a portfolio of 10% commodities, 10% gold, and 2% crypto in addition to equities and bonds – likely to return more and protect you better? We have crunched the numbers.

Stocks Like These Can Outperform. Here Is Data

Here is how we make the selection: We consider stocks > $10 Bil in market cap, and then include those with high CFO (cash flow from operations) margins or operating margins. We additionally consider only those stocks that have meaningfully declined in valuation over the past 1 year.

Below are statistics for stocks with this selection strategy applied since 12/31/2016.

  • Average 12-month forward returns of nearly 19%
  • 12-month win rate (percentage of picks returning positive) of about 72%

But Consider The Risk

Old Dominion Freight Line isn’t immune to big drops. It fell about 51% during the Global Financial Crisis and took a 43% hit in the Dot-Com crash. The 2018 correction cost it 31%, while the Covid selloff wiped out close to 29%. Even the inflation shock pushed it down over 36%. Sure, the company has strong fundamentals, but history shows that when markets turn, ODFL can still get hit hard.

The Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio, with a collection of 30 stocks, has a track record of comfortably outperforming its benchmark that includes all 3 – the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 indices. Why is that? As a group, HQ Portfolio stocks provided better returns with less risk versus the benchmark index; less of a roller-coaster ride, as evident in HQ Portfolio performance metrics.