It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Gatx (GATX Quick QuoteGATX - Free Report) . Shares have lost about 0.1% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500.

Will the recent negative trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Gatx due for a breakout? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.

GATX Q4 Earnings Top Estimates

GATX's earnings (excluding 11 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.58 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.07. The bottom line surged more than 200% year over year. Total revenues of $321 million increased 5.3% year over year, mainly due to 5.2% rise in lease revenues, which came in at $288.4 million. Lease revenues contributed 89.8% to the top line. Marine operating revenues contributed 1.7% to the top line. The rest came from other sources. Total expenses (on a reported basis) inched up 7.3% to $248.2 million.

Segmental Details

Profits in the Rail North America segment soared 52.7% year over year to $75.6 million. The upside was primarily led by higher gains on asset dispositions. The renewal lease rate change of the company’s Lease Price Index (“LPI”) was -0.7% in the reported quarter compared with the year-ago quarter’s -22.6%. Average lease renewal term for cars included in the LPI was 37 months compared with 34 months in the year-ago quarter.

Rail North America’s wholly-owned fleet consisted of approximately 114,500 rail cars at the end of Dec 31, 2021. Fleet utilization was 99.2% compared with 98.1% at the end of fourth-quarter 2020.

GATX Rail Europe’s fleet totaled around 27,100 rail cars at the end of the quarter. Fleet utilization was 98.7% in the reported quarter compared with 98.1% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2020.

The Portfolio Management unit reported a segmental profit of $36.3 million in the December quarter against a loss of $5.7 million in the year-ago quarter. This improvement can be contributed to strong performance at the Rolls-Royce and Partners Finance affiliates and GATX Engine Leasing earnings.

Liquidity

GATX exited the fourth quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $344.3 million compared with $292.2 million at the end of 2020.

2022 Outlook

GATX’s management expects recovery in the North American railcar leasing market to continue in 2022. Based on this recovery and recent investments made across its global businesses, the company expects 2022 earnings per share to be in the range of $5.50-$5.80

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?

Analysts were quiet during the last two month period as none of them issued any earnings estimate revisions.