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Canadian Pacific Kansas City Q1 Earnings Match Estimates, Up Y/Y

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Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (CP - Free Report) reported first-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 6 cents from non-recurring items) of 74 cents per share, which came in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The bottom line improved 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Operating revenues of $2.64 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.66 billion. However, the top line improved on a year-over-year basis.

In the reported quarter, total freight revenues per revenue ton miles increased 5% year over year. Total Freight revenues per carload increased 6% year over year.

On a reported basis, operating income increased 15%. Total operating expenses grew 5% year over year. The reported operating ratio (operating expenses as a percentage of revenues) fell 210 basis points to 65.3% from 67.4% in the year-ago quarter.

Keith Creel, CPKC president and chief executive officer, stated, “Our talented team of world-class railroaders executed our precision scheduled operating plan to safely and efficiently move solid freight demand to start 2025, producing strong first-quarter results amidst ongoing turbulent market and macroeconomic conditions. These first-quarter results demonstrate the power and resiliency of our unrivalled North American network.”

CP’s Segmental Highlights

Freight revenues, accounting for 98.2% of the top line, increased 8.7% to $3.72 billion. The actual figure surpassed our estimate of $3.5 billion.

CP’s Freight segment contains Grain (up 4%), Coal (up 21%), Potash (up 10%), Energy, chemicals and plastics (up 3%), Metals, minerals and consumer products (down 1%), Automotive (up 18%) and Intermodal (up 4%). Meanwhile, Fertilizers and Sulphur and Forest products grew 5% and 2%, respectively.

Other revenues increased 7.6% year over year in the first quarter of 2025.

CP’s Liquidity

CP exited the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of C$695 million compared with C$739 million at the end of the prior quarter. Long-term debt amounted to C$21.1 billion compared with C$19.8 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.

CP’s Outlook

Due to ongoing tariff and trade policy uncertainty, Canadian Pacific Kansas City now expects 2025 core adjusted combined diluted earnings per share to grow in the 10-14% range (prior view: 12-18% range) from the 2024 actuals to C$4.25 per share.

Canadian Pacific Kansas City continues to expect 2025 RTMs to increase in the mid-single digits from the 2024 actuals on a combined basis.

Management expects capital expenditures to be C$2.9 billion for the full year. The core adjusted effective tax rate for 2025 is expected to be 24.5%.

Currently, CP carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

We note that another player from the broader Zacks Transportation sector, Landstar System (LSTR - Free Report) , will report its first-quarter earnings numbers later this month. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)

Landstar System is scheduled to report first-quarter 2025 earnings on May 13. The company’s performance in the first quarter is expected to have suffered from weak freight demand, geopolitical uncertainty, tariff-related uncertainties and high inflationary pressure.

LSTR has outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in two of the last four quarters (missing the mark on the other two occasions). The average miss is 0.6%.

Q1 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

United Airlines

United Airlines’ (UAL - Free Report) first-quarter 2025 earnings per share (excluding 25 cents from non-recurring items) of 91 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 75 cents. In the year-ago quarter, the Chicago-based airline reported a loss of 15 cents per share. 

Operating revenues of $13.21 billion fell marginally short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.22 billion. The top line increased 5.4% year over year despite the tariff-induced slowdown in domestic air travel demand. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 89.7% of the top line) rose 4.8% to $11.9 billion. UAL flights transported 40,806 passengers in the first quarter, up 3.8% year over year.

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines(DAL - Free Report) reported first-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 9 cents from non-recurring items) of 46 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 40 cents. Earnings increased 2.2% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

Revenues in the March-end quarter were $14.04 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.81 billion and increasing 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) rose 3.3% year over year to $13 billion.

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