Back to top

Image: Bigstock

C.H. Robinson (CHRW) Q1 Earnings Miss Estimates, Shares Down

Read MoreHide Full Article

C.H. Robinson Worldwide’s (CHRW - Free Report) shares declined 2.7% in after-hours trading on Apr 28 following its first-quarter 2020 earnings release. The company’s earnings of 57 cents per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 71 cents. The bottom line also plunged 50.9% year over year.

However, total revenues of $3,805 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3554.7 million and also increased 1.4% year over year. This upside was led by higher truckload and less than truckload (LTL) volumes.

Total operating expenses inched up 0.9% year over year to $458.51 million, primarily due to a 12.4% increase in selling, general and administrative expenses. Consequently, operating ratio (operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues) deteriorated to 80.7% from 66.9% in the year-ago quarter. With respect to this metric, the lower the value, the better.

The company returned $152.2 million to shareholders through a combination of cash dividends ($69.9 million) and share repurchases ($82.4 million). Capital expenditures totaled $14.7 million in the quarter under review. Full-year capital expenses are expected in the range of $60-$70 million, with the maximum reserved for technology spends.

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

 

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

At North American Surface Transportation (NAST), total revenues were $2,823.75 million (up 1%) in the first quarter. However, net revenues at the segment dropped 23.4% despite the Prime Distribution Services acquisition contributing 1 percentage point to segmental results. NAST results include Robinson Fresh transportation, which was previously reported under a separate segment.

Total revenues at Global Forwarding summed $530.38 million, down 1.3% year over year. Contraction in volumes at the ocean and air units affected results. Meanwhile, net revenues at the segment climbed 0.8% with The Space Cargo Group acquisition boosting results by 2 percentage points.

A historical presentation of the results on an enterprise basis is given below:

Transportation: The unit (comprising Truckload, Intermodal, LTL, Ocean, Air, Customs and Other logistics services) delivered net revenues of $542 million in the quarter under consideration, down 16.8% from the prior-year figure.

Truckload net revenues declined 29.9% year over year to $264.93 million despite volumes increasing 7.5% year over year. LTL net revenues also dropped 2% year over year to $113.91 million. However, LTL volumes grew 7.5% in the quarter.

At the Intermodal segment, net revenues increased 24.3% year over year to $7.55 millionas volumes rose 8%.Net revenues at the Ocean transportation segment declined 2.3% year over year to $69.9 million. The same at the air transportation segment increased 2.7% to $28.34 million. Meanwhile, customs net revenues slid 3.1% to $21.19 million.

However, Other logistics services’ net revenues rose 19.1% to $36.18 million.

Sourcing: Net revenues at the segment slipped 4.3% to $25.95 million.

Liquidity

This Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company exited the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $294.57 million compared with $447.86 million at the end of 2019. Liquidity at the end of the quarter was more than $1.2 billion. Long-term debt was $1,092.66 million compared with $1,092.45 million at 2019-end.

You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Performance of Other Transportation Stocks

Within the broader Transportation sector, Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) , CSX Corp. (CSX - Free Report) and Union Pacific Corp. (UNP - Free Report) reported earnings numbers last week.

Delta incurred a loss of 51 cents (excluding 33 cents from non-recurring items) in the March quarter, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 72 cents. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported earnings (on an adjusted basis) of 96 cents per share. Total revenues of $8,592 million lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $9,637.5 million and also declined 18% year over year.

CSX reported first-quarter 2020 earnings of $1 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 92 cents. However, the bottom line slipped approximately 2% year over year on a 5% drop in revenues. Total revenues of $2,855 million lagged the consensus estimate of $2,877 million owing to lower coal and other revenues.

Union Pacific’s first-quarter 2020 earnings of $2.15 per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.86. Operating revenues of $5,229 million also beat the consensus mark of $5,105.9 million. While the bottom line improved 11.4% on a year-over-year basis, primarily due to low costs, the top line declined 3% owing to sluggish freight revenues (down 3%).

Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2020

In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2020?

Last year's 2019 Zacks Top 10 Stocks portfolio returned gains as high as +102.7%. Now a brand-new portfolio has been handpicked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Don’t miss your chance to get in on these long-term buys.

Access Zacks Top 10 Stocks for 2020 today >>

Published in