On September 14, Radiant Logistics (NYSEAMERICAN:RLGT) held its fourth fiscal quarter earnings call, and the headline numbers landed harder than a typical logistics update. Net income jumped 53.1% to $7.5 million for the quarter ended June 30, while revenue climbed 18.5% to $261.4 million. Look past that one quarter, though, and the picture gets more complicated, because full-year adjusted profitability actually fell. That gap between a blowout quarter and a softer year is what makes this name worth a closer look.
A Quarter Firing On All Cylinders
The fourth fiscal quarter was strong from top to bottom. Adjusted EBITDA rose 31.6% to $10.4 million, margin expanded 240 basis points to 15.5%, and adjusted net income climbed 34.5% to $7.4 million, all against organic revenue growth of 8%. Management credited the acceleration to US forwarding operations and international airfreight, including work supporting disaster relief after typhoon activity hit the Western Pacific earlier this year, plus airfreight demand tied to capital flows into global data center buildouts.
The balance sheet backs up the story. Radiant enters fiscal 2027 with zero net debt, $25.6 million in cash as of June 30, and a $200 million senior credit facility that was extended and restated in August, pushing maturity out to August 7, 2031, while its acquisition-focused accordion grew to $100 million from $75 million. On the domestic side, capacity has been exiting the truckload and intermodal markets, and spot rates and tender rejections moved higher late in the quarter. Radiant also launched a new independent agent program at Radiant Road & Rail during the quarter, extending its freight forwarding agent network into truck brokerage and intermodal, while Navegate is gaining traction, with one enterprise customer now managing more than 1,400 vendors on the platform.
A Full Year That Lagged
The full-year numbers tell a different story than the quarter does. Revenue rose just 3.5% to $934.4 million from $902.7 million, a fraction of the fourth quarter’s 18.5% pace, and full-year net income grew a modest 8.7% to $18.8 million. Full-year adjusted EBITDA actually fell 5.4% to $36.7 million from $38.8 million, and that figure included a $1.3 million First Brands adjustment. Strip that out and normalized adjusted EBITDA comes in at $35.4 million, an even steeper decline than the headline number suggests.
The operating backdrop stays complicated too. Ocean shipping routes remain disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and continued Houthi activity affecting Suez Canal transits, keeping capacity tight on key trade lanes. US tariff policy is generating elevated IEEPA-related filing activity, and Canada put new retaliatory tariff measures into effect in early September, adding fresh complexity for shippers moving goods across that border. Management itself acknowledged that the domestic truck brokerage improvement seen late in the fourth quarter is not yet fully reflected in the reported results.
Wall Street’s Mixed Read
Hedge fund ownership slipped from 13 funds to 11 across the two most recent quarters, a sign that some institutional holders trimmed positions even as the business turned in a strong quarter. Short interest sits at just 2.17% of float, which points to little organized skepticism toward the stock. At 11.68 times forward earnings, as of September 16, Radiant Logistics trades at a modest multiple that leaves room to re-rate if the freight cycle keeps improving. That combination is the tension shaping how the market is pricing this name right now.
The Question Still Open
Radiant Logistics closes fiscal 2026 debt-free, with an expanded credit facility and a domestic freight market showing its first real signs of turning. The fourth quarter numbers are hard to argue with, but the full year’s declining adjusted profitability shows how much of that strength arrived late, and how far the business still has to travel. Whether the domestic recovery proves durable, or whether cross-border tariff friction and ocean shipping disruption keep pressuring margins, will decide which of those two stories ends up defining the year ahead.
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