Yahoo Finance Does Saia (NASDAQ:SAIA) Deserve A Spot On Your Watchlist?
For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. But as Peter Lynch said in One Up On Wall Street, 'Long shots almost never pay off.' A loss-making company is yet to prove itself with profit, and eventually the inflow of external capital may dry up.
Despite being in the age of tech-stock blue-sky investing, many investors still adopt a more traditional strategy; buying shares in profitable companies like Saia (NASDAQ:SAIA). Even if this company is fairly valued by the market, investors would agree that generating consistent profits will continue to provide Saia with the means to add long-term value to shareholders.
View our latest analysis for Saia
Saia's Earnings Per Share Are Growing
If you believe that markets are even vaguely efficient, then over the long term you'd expect a company's share price to follow its earnings per share (EPS) outcomes. That means EPS growth is considered a real positive by most successful long-term investors. Saia's shareholders have have plenty to be happy about as their annual EPS growth for the last 3 years was 40%. While that sort of growth rate isn't sustainable for long, it certainly catches the eye of prospective investors.
It's often helpful to take a look at earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. The music to the ears of Saia shareholders is that EBIT margins have grown from 10% to 16% in the last 12 months and revenues are on an upwards trend as well. That's great to see, on both counts.
In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings and revenue, over time. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.
Of course the knack is to find stocks that have their best days in the future, not in the past. You could base your opinion on past performance, of course, but you may also want to check this interactive graph of professional analyst EPS forecasts for Saia.
Are Saia Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?
It should give investors a sense of security owning shares in a company if insiders also own shares, creating a close alignment their interests. Shareholders will be pleased by the fact that insiders own Saia shares worth a considerable sum. To be specific, they have US$15m worth of shares. This considerable investment should help drive long-term value in the business. While their ownership only accounts for 0.3%, this is still a considerable amount at stake to encourage the business to maintain a strategy that will deliver value to shareholders.
It's good to see that insiders are invested in the company, but are remuneration levels reasonable? Well, based on the CEO pay, you'd argue that they are indeed. For companies with market capitalisations between US$4.0b and US$12b, like Saia, the median CEO pay is around US$8.4m.
The Saia CEO received US$4.9m in compensation for the year ending December 2021. That is actually below the median for CEO's of similarly sized companies. While the level of CEO compensation shouldn't be the biggest factor in how the company is viewed, modest remuneration is a positive, because it suggests that the board keeps shareholder interests in mind. It can also be a sign of a culture of integrity, in a broader sense.
Should You Add Saia To Your Watchlist?
Saia's earnings per share growth have been climbing higher at an appreciable rate. The sweetener is that insiders have a mountain of stock, and the CEO remuneration is quite reasonable. The strong EPS improvement suggests the businesses is humming along. Saia certainly ticks a few boxes, so we think it's probably well worth further consideration. What about risks? Every company has them, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Saia you should know about.
There's always the possibility of doing well buying stocks that are not growing earnings and do not have insiders buying shares. But for those who consider these important metrics, we encourage you to check out companies that do have those features. You can access a free list of them here.
Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
