JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Landstar System, Inc. (Nasdaq: LSTR), a safety-first non-asset-based provider of transportation capacity, tops Forbes list of Best Mid-Cap Stocks in the Transportation Industry and ranks 21st out of the 100 companies named to the entire list.
According to Forbes only 1,000 U.S. companies fall into the editors' definition of mid-cap companies with a market capitalization between $1 billion and $4 billion. Forbes describes its list of the top 100 as "elite."
"It's an honor to be distinguished as one of America's elite mid-cap companies by a well-respected publication like Forbes," said Landstar President and CEO Henry Gerkens. "Landstar's unique business model and our reputation as a safe, reliable non-asset based third-party transportation capacity provider continue to set us apart from standard truckload carriers and the other third-party transport providers. At the end of the day, the numbers speak for themselves."
In January, Landstar made Forbes magazine's Platinum 400 List of the Best Big Companies in America for the sixth consecutive year. Landstar also topped that list in the Transportation industry with a 48.3 percent 5-year annualized total investment return on its common stock.
To make the list of Forbes 100 Best Mid-Cap Stocks, each company had to show positive growth in five-year return on equity, sales and earnings. Companies were given a composite score based on those metrics. Then, equity analyst's estimates for annualized three- to five-year earnings growth were factored in. An outside research company then scrutinized balance sheet and boardroom practices before scoring companies in three areas: (1) financial condition, (2) accounting and governance and (3) earnings quality. Forbes editors also took into account, what they referred to as "other warning signs" such as legal issues or adverse publicity.