Transportation company Schneider (NYSE: SNDR) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q4 CY2025 as sales rose 4.5% year on year to $1.4 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.13 per share was 35% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Employing thousands of drivers across the country to make deliveries, Schneider (NYSE: SNDR) makes full truckload and intermodal deliveries regionally and across borders.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Over the last five years, Schneider grew its sales at a tepid 4.5% compounded annual growth rate. This was below our standard for the industrials sector and is a tough starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Schneider’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its annualized revenue growth of 1.6% over the last two years was below its five-year trend.

We can dig further into the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segments, Truckload and Logistics, which are 43.6% and 23.5% of revenue. Over the last two years, Schneider’s Truckload revenue (road freight) averaged 7.3% year-on-year growth. On the other hand, its Logistics revenue (supply chain, warehousing) averaged 1.9% declines.

This quarter, Schneider’s revenue grew by 4.5% year on year to $1.4 billion, falling short of Wall Street’s estimates.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.5% over the next 12 months. While this projection indicates its newer products and services will spur better top-line performance, it is still below the sector average.

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Operating Margin

Operating margin is one of the best measures of profitability because it tells us how much money a company takes home after procuring and manufacturing its products, marketing and selling those products, and most importantly, keeping them relevant through research and development.

Schneider was profitable over the last five years but held back by its large cost base. Its average operating margin of 6.2% was weak for an industrials business. This result isn’t too surprising given its low gross margin as a starting point.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, Schneider’s operating margin decreased by 6.5 percentage points over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability. Schneider’s performance was poor no matter how you look at it - it shows that costs were rising and it couldn’t pass them onto its customers.

This quarter, Schneider generated an operating margin profit margin of 2.6%, in line with the same quarter last year. This indicates the company’s cost structure has recently been stable.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

Sadly for Schneider, its EPS declined by 13.1% annually over the last five years while its revenue grew by 4.5%. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded due to non-fundamental factors such as interest expenses and taxes.

Diving into the nuances of Schneider’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Schneider’s operating margin was flat this quarter but declined by 6.5 percentage points over the last five years. This was the most relevant factor (aside from the revenue impact) behind its lower earnings; interest expenses and taxes can also affect EPS but don’t tell us as much about a company’s fundamentals.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a shorter period to see if we are missing a change in the business.

For Schneider, its two-year annual EPS declines of 32.5% show it’s continued to underperform. These results were bad no matter how you slice the data.

In Q4, Schneider reported adjusted EPS of $0.13, down from $0.20 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Schneider’s full-year EPS of $0.62 to grow 72.2%.

Key Takeaways from Schneider’s Q4 Results

We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its full-year EPS guidance missed and its Truckload revenue fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a softer quarter. The stock traded down 12.8% to $25.91 immediately after reporting.

Schneider’s earnings report left more to be desired. Let’s look forward to see if this quarter has created an opportunity to buy the stock. When making that decision, it’s important to consider its valuation, business qualities, as well as what has happened in the latest quarter. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).