The transportation sector is riding high on first-quarter financial results, with total earnings from 97.8% of the sector’s total market capitalization, reported so far, up 20.9% on revenue growth of 8.7%. Both revenue and earnings surprises of 76.9% also seem impressive.
This is because most of the key industry players managed to beat our estimates on earnings or revenues or both, while a few lagged.
For a better understanding, let’s dig into the earnings results of some well-known industry players:
Transportation Earnings in Focus
The world’s largest package delivery company United Parcel Service (UPS – Free Report) topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate on both fronts. Earnings of $1.55 surpassed the earnings estimate by a penny while revenues of $17.11 billion edged past the estimated $16.44 billion. For fiscal 2018, the company continued to expect earnings per share in the range of $7.03-$7.37. The Zacks Consensus Estimate at the time of earnings release was pegged at $7.22.
The major railroads – Union Pacific (UNP – Free Report) and Norfolk Southern Corp (NSC – Free Report) – beat on both the top and the bottom lines while Kansas City Southern (KSU – Free Report)missed. UNP and NSC surpassed the earnings estimate by 3 cents and 16 cents, respectively, and revenue estimates by $104 million and $35 million. On the other hand, earnings of $1.30 at KSU lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate by five cents while revenues of $639 million were also marginally below our estimated $644 million.
Ryder Systems (R – Free Report) , the leader in supply chain management and fleet management services, beat the earnings estimate by three cents and revenue estimate by $30 million.
The two largest U.S. airlines Delta Air Lines (DAL – Free Report) and United Continental (UAL – Free Report) also reported better-than-expected results. Earnings of 74 cents and revenues of $9.97 billion at Delta edged past the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 73 cents and $9.91 billion, respectively. For the second quarter of 2018, the carrier expects earnings per share in the range of $1.80-$2.00.
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