Transportation Stocks Oct 22 Earnings Roster: UPS, JBLU, HA

CSX DAL JBLU UNP UPS HA

The Zacks Transportation sector is widely diversified in nature. It houses airlines, railroads, shipping and trucking companies to name a few.

The third-quarter 2019 earnings season is underway for this key sector with reports available from S&P 500 members like Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) , United Airlines, CSX Corporation (CSX - Free Report) , Union Pacific Corporation (UNP - Free Report) and Kansas City Southern . Results have been impressive so far on the bottom-line front with the likes of Delta, United Airlines, CSX and Kansas City Southern reporting better-than-expected earnings per share on the back of mainly lower costs.

Per the latest Earnings Outlook, total earnings of transports belonging to the S&P 500 universe are projected to increase 6.5% year over year in the current reporting cycle. The figure indicates a rise from 5.1% bottom-line growth reported by the S&P 500 transports in the preceding earnings season.

Given this backdrop, let’s delve deeper and analyse the factors likely to have influenced the third-quarter 2019 performance of three transportation companies that are scheduled to announce results on Oct 22.

United Parcel Service (UPS - Free Report) : Alike the last few quarters, e-commerce growth is likely to have aided this Atlanta-based company’s third quarter as well. The same is expected to have expanded package volumes at the U.S. Domestic Package segment.

However, due to UPS’ substantial exposure in China, the Sino-US trade tussle is likely to have caused some sluggishness in third-quarter international package volumes. Moreover, with UPS investing significantly in its facilities’ upgrade to meet the surge in demand following rapid growth in e-commerce, its bottom line is expected to reflect the impact of surging capital expenditures in the to-be-reported results.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter revenues is pegged at $18.3 billion, suggesting 4.9% growth from the year-ago reported number. Further, the consensus estimate for earnings stands at $2.06 per share, indicating a13.2% rise from the prior-year reported number.

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for UPS this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of beating estimates. However, UPS has an Earnings ESP of -1.38% and a Zacks Rank #3. (Read more: Will Low International Package Volumes Mar UPS' Q3 Earnings?).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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