June 1, 2005

SpeculatingStocks.com Stock Pick: U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc. (XPRSA)

Stock Price: $12.21 (long-term strong buy)

U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Inc. is the fifth largest (measured by revenue) publicly owned trucking service in the United States. They also participate in logistics services through their joint ownership of Transplace, an Internet-based global transportation logistics company.

Shares jumped yesterday on news of U.S. Xpress selling its aiport-to-aiport division for $12.75 million. Annual revenue from this division totaled 5%. The company plans on paying down debt with the $12.75 million.

XPRSA was uptrending strongly until the company guided for a Q1 loss. Analysts were expecting a profit of $0.06 per share for the quarter, instead the company reported a net loss of $0.13 per share. This was compared to $0.06 Q1 EPS last year. The loss was blamed on higher fuel costs and a seasonal Q1 trend.

We believe the panic selling since mid-March has left XPRSA oversold. As of Q1, book value on shares of XPRSA was $14.25. Net income is expected to be in the range of $0.18 to $0.26 for Q2. We believe XPRSA will hit this range, if fuel prices stay in their current range.

There are only 10.36 million shares in the float and less than 2% are being shorted.

SpeculatingStocks.com Target Price: We expect XPRSA to reach the $20-$25 range within the next 4-8 months.