C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc.’s CHRW fourth-quarter 2017 earnings (excluding 9 cents from non-recurring items) per share of 99 cents beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 85 cents. Moreover, the bottom line climbed 15.1% year over year on higher revenues.
Total revenues rose 16% year over year to $3,959.8 million, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,686.6 million. Notably, increased pricing and volume growth across most transportation sectors drove the top line.
Total operating expenses increased 14.4% year over year to $420.97 million, resulting in an operating ratio (operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues) of 66.6% compared with 65.5% in the year-ago quarter.
Segmental Results
Total revenues at North American Surface Transportation (NAST) were $2.62 billion in the reported quarter (up 14.8%) while the same at Global Forwarding totaled $591.25 million (up 24.2%) and at Robinson Fresh, the metric logged $594.65 million (up 12.3%).
A historical presentation of results on an enterprise basis is given below:
Transportation: The unit (comprising Truckload, Intermodal, Less-than-Truckload, Ocean, Air, Customs and Other logistics services) posted net revenues of $604.73 million in the reported quarter, up 12.9% from the prior-year period.
Truckload net revenues grew 15.3% year over year to $342.13 million. Additionally, net revenues at Less-than-Truckload rose 11.7% year over year to $105.31 million.
Net revenues at the Intermodal segment declined 22% year over year to $5.87 million.
Net revenues at the Ocean transportation segment improved 5.9% year over year to $73.14 million. The same at the Air transportation division jumped 16.2% year over year to $27.59 million. Customs net revenues surged 33.3% to $21.14 million.
Net revenues at Other logistics services increased 4% year over year to $29.55 million.
Sourcing: Net revenues at the segment rose 4.6% year over year to approximately $27.12 million.
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. Quote
Liquidity
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company exited the reported quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $333.89 million compared with $247.67 million at the end of 2016. Long-term debt was $750 million at the end of the quarter under review compared with $500 million recorded at the end of 2016. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Upcoming Releases
Investors interested in the broader Transportation sector are keenly awaiting fourth-quarter earnings reports from key players namely United Parcel Service, Inc. UPS, Ryder System, Inc. R and Spirit Airlines, Inc. SAVE. While UPS will report on Feb 1, Spirit Airlines and Ryder will release financial numbers on Feb 6 and Feb 16, respectively.
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