FedEx Freight Holding Company, Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2026, after FedEx Corporation distributed 80.1 percent of the company's common stock to its own shareholders in a tax-free spin-off. The parent retained a 19.9 percent stake and has committed to disposing of it over the next two years. The business is the largest pure-play less-than-truckload carrier in North America, built on the Viking Freight, American Freightways, and Watkins Motor Lines acquisitions that the parent completed in the late 1990s and 2000s. That legacy gives the company a coast-to-coast terminal network and a brand that smaller LTL operators cannot replicate.
The standalone equity story sits on top of a debt load raised to fund the distribution, a stack of $3.7 billion in senior unsecured notes plus a $0.6 billion delayed-draw term loan. The weighted-average interest rate on that stack is 4.79 percent, and the first coupon payment lands in September 2026. The debt was a condition of the spin-off, and it is now a permanent feature of the capital structure that the operating business services on a stand-alone basis.
The first full standalone fiscal year ended last spring shows why the market prices this as a turnaround rather than a quality compounder. Revenue of $8.795 billion slipped 1 percent from the prior year. Operating income fell sharply against the prior-year level. The operating margin landed at 6.1 percent, down from 15.8 percent a year earlier. The compression comes from a cyclical demand trough in North American industrial freight. Separately, $492 million of one-time spin-off costs roll off after this year. The share price in early September sits in the $125 to $130 range. The stock values at roughly 12.5 times forward earnings, a multiple that embeds a recovery assumption while leaving limited cushion if volumes stay soft.