C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (CHRW) first-quarter 2024 earnings of 86 cents per share outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 60 cents but declined year over year. Total revenues of $4,412.31 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4,209.1 million but declined 4.3% year over year owing to lowerpricing in the company’s truckload services, partially offset by higher pricing and increased volume in its ocean services.
Operating expenses grew 1.1% year over year to $530.6 million.
Adjusted gross profits fell 4.1% year over year to $657.7 million, owing to lower adjusted gross profit per transaction in truckload. Adjusted operating margin fell 420 basis points to 19.3%.
C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. Quote
Segmental Results
North American Surface Transportation’s total revenues were $3.00billion (down 9.2% year over year) in the first quarter owing to lower truckload pricing, reflecting an oversupply of truckload capacity compared to freight demand. The actual figure was lower than our estimate of $3.03 billion. Adjusted gross profit of the segment declined 6.9% to $397.11 million.
Total revenues from Global Forwarding grew 8.7% to $858.63 million, owing to higher pricing and increased volume in CHRW’s ocean services. The actual figure was higher than our estimate of $613.8 million. Adjusted gross profit of the segment grew 1.2% year over year to $180.05million
Revenues from other sources (Robinson Fresh, Managed Services and Other Surface Transportation) increased 6.9% to $553.36 million. The actual figure was higher than our estimate of $523.5 million.
Below we present the division of adjusted profit among the service lines (on an enterprise basis).
Transportation: The unit (comprising Truckload, LTL, Ocean, Air, Customs and Other logistics services) delivered an adjusted gross profit of $627.59million in the quarter under consideration, down 4.5% from the prior-year figure.
Adjusted gross profits of Truckload, Air and Other logistics services declined 10.8%, 2.5% and 8.2% year over year, respectively. For LTL, Ocean and Customs, adjusted gross profits grew 1.8%, 2.5% and 11.8% year over year, respectively.
Liquidity & Buyback
CHRW exited the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $121.84 million compared with $145.52 million at the fourth-quarter end. Long-term debt was $1,420.77 million compared with $1,420.48 million at the end of the prior quarter.
CHRW utilized $33.3 million of cash in operations in the first quarter. Capital expenditures were $22.5 million in the reported quarter.
In the first quarter of 2024, CHRW returned $90.7 million of cash to shareholders which includes $74.6 million in the form of cash dividends and $16.1 million through share repurchases.
2024 Outlook
Capital expenditures for 2024 are anticipated to be between $85 million and $95 million.
Currently, C.H. Robinson carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Performances of Other Transportation Companies
Delta Air Lines DAL reported first-quarter 2024 earnings (excluding 39 cents from non-recurring items) of 45 cents per share, which comfortably beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 36 cents. Earnings increased 80% on a year-over-year basis.
Revenues of $13.75 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12.84 billion and increased 7.75% on a year-over-year basis, driven by strong air-travel demand. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) came in at $12.56 billion, up 6% year over year.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.UAL reported first-quarter 2024 loss per share (excluding 23 cents from non-recurring items) of 15 cents, which was narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 53 cents. In the year-ago reported quarter, UAL reported a loss of 63 cents per share.
Operating revenues of $12,539 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12,428.4 million. The top line increased 9.7% year over year due to upbeat air-travel demand. This was driven by a 10.1% rise in passenger revenues (accounting for 90.2% of the top line) to $11,313 million. Almost 39,325 passengers traveled on UAL flights in the first quarter, up 6.8% year over year.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.’s JBHT first-quarter 2024 earnings of $1.22 per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.53 and declined 35.5% year over year.
JBHT’s total operating revenues of $2,944 million missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,117.1 million and fell 8.8% year over year. Total operating revenues, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, fell 7% year over year. The downfall was owing to a 9% decrease in segment gross revenue per load in both Intermodal (JBI) and Truckload (JBT), 22% fewer loads in Integrated Capacity Solution (ICS), and a modest decline in average trucks and productivity in Dedicated Contract Services (DCS). Revenue declines in JBI, ICS, JBT and DCS were partially offset by Final Mile Services (FMS) revenue growth of 2%, primarily driven by new contracts implemented over the past year.
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