CluenexExpeditors International EXPD
Expeditors International scores average on business quality (5.8 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Expeditors International does
Expeditors arranges global logistics and freight forwarding. It coordinates air and ocean shipments, customs brokerage, and warehousing for companies moving goods internationally without owning the underlying planes or ships. Stronger ocean freight rates and airfreight volumes drive recent top-line momentum.
- What it does best
Expeditors generates exceptional returns on equity, posting an ROE of 40.7% that outpaces peers like FedEx at 15.1%. This asset-light model requires virtually zero physical debt, allowing high cash conversion without heavy capital expenditures.
- The main risk
Operating purely as a middleman leaves earnings entirely exposed to volatile freight rate swings. When shipping capacity normalizes or ocean rates drop, gross profits compress rapidly as seen in the steep revenue decline from 2022 levels.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margins sit at 9.8% with a net margin of 7.6%. This model scales smoothly without asset intensity, though profits remain bound to cyclical freight rate pricing power.
The middleman moat relies on complex global customs expertise and shipper relationships, ranking in the middle of the pack for sector gross margins at 32.7%, limiting deep pricing power against rivals.
Revenue grew 4.4% to $12 billion, showing a mild recovery from prior-year declines but remaining well below peak pandemic shipping booms, marking a largely stagnant multi-year trend.
Zero total debt and $1.3 billion in cash mean debt costs are nonexistent. Free cash flow of $924M supports heavy buybacks of $827M, keeping the balance sheet exceptionally strong.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on EXPD
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Expeditors International scores average on the Cluenex quality check (5.8 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health strong.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Nov 3, 2026.
See EXPD today
- Today's verdict on EXPD, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Expeditors International (EXPD)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/expd/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.