BID TerminalOpen complete report
Research library Industrials & Energy

Back of Napkin

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. CHRW

Three-pass checkedFiled since 2026-07-31

Written 2026-05-19. The company has filed a quarterly or annual report since, on 2026-07-31, so figures here predate its latest disclosure.

C.H. Robinson is North America's largest freight brokerage, matching shippers with truckload, less-than-truckload, and intermodal capacity, with a global forwarding business on top; the model is asset-light, the moat is the relationship database, and the bet is whether the new operating playbook produces secular earnings growth across freight cycles.

The setup is a beat-and-raise compounder reasserting itself, where Q1 2026 adjusted EPS grew 15% in a supply-driven tightening trucking market and management reaffirmed the $6 FY26 EPS target with no market growth assumed; the stock has recovered toward the high end of its 52-week range and the multiple now demands the productivity story to deliver.

Key data

Sector / industryIndustrials / Integrated Freight and Logistics
FYE / countryDecember / US
Price / 52w range$173.56 / $92.36 to $203.34
Position vs MA50d SMA $172.18, 200d SMA $156.97; recent constructive 50-over-200 cross
Market cap / EV≈$20.5B / ≈$21.4B
Revenue (TTM)≈$16.20B
EPS (TTM, GAAP)≈$5.00
Beta0.94

CHRW · price with moving averages

Daily · 6MWeekly · 3Y
$59$99$139$179$220 Sep '23Apr '24Nov '24Jun '25Jan '26Aug '26 BID
EMAs82140

Source: market data.

The business

C.H. Robinson is North America's largest freight brokerage, matching shippers with truckload, less-than-truckload, and intermodal capacity, with a global forwarding business on top. The model is asset-light, the moat is the relationship database, and the differentiator now is the "LEAN AI" operating model, the company's framework for combining lean manufacturing discipline with AI-driven decision automation across pricing, capacity matching, and back-office operations.

Q1 2026, reported April 29, posted net revenue $4.01B and adjusted EPS $1.35, up 15% year-over-year and a beat of the $1.24 consensus (sixth consecutive beat), achieved against significant truckload spot-market cost increases that historically compress brokerage margins. North American Surface Transportation (NAST) gross margin held at 14.6% on targeted repricing plus volume management, while Global Forwarding remained the steadier engine. Management reaffirmed the $6.00 FY26 adjusted EPS target with "no market growth assumed," attributing the path to double-digit productivity gains weighted to H2. CEO Dave Bozeman noted the North American trucking market has entered a period of supply-driven tightening and that older "which-provider-benefits" narratives miss the secular earnings improvement the company is generating regardless of cycle position. The company also expanded share repurchases.

Inside the complete Back of Napkin

  1. 01The business
  2. 02The numbers
  3. 03Management
  4. 04The linchpins
  5. 05Closing
  6. 06Methodology

Continue with CHRW

Get the complete Back of Napkin free.

Choose this as your free complete report. No card required.

Read the complete report

More company research

View all research
Vertiv Holdings Co VRTVertiv's deferred revenue doubled to $3.6B in six months, customers paying in advance for power and cooling gear they cannot get elsewhere fast enough, and the company just raised every number in its full-year guide. Back of Napkin GE Vernova Inc. GEVGE Vernova booked $24.2B of orders in a quarter, orders up 88%, against $11.1B of revenue, and its gas-turbine production is effectively sold out into the next decade. Back of Napkin The Boeing Company BABoeing's share count has risen 27.8% in under two years, from 619 million to 791 million. Back of Napkin Vistra Corp. VSTVistra has signed twenty-year contracts to sell 3,809 megawatts of nuclear power to Amazon and Meta. Back of Napkin