J.B. Hunt’s First-Quarter Income Declines
Truckload carrier J.B. Hunt Transport Services’ first-quarter profit declined to $36.4 million, or 28 cents a share, from $44.2 million, or 30 cents, a year ago.
Revenue rose 10% to $878 million, the company said late Monday, while operating income fell 10% to $72 million.
Trucking segment revenue fell 14% to $185 million, while truck operating income plunged to a $46,000 loss, compared with earning $11.4 million last year, the company said.
The trucking “division continues to be challenged by a depressed freight economy, compounded by a steep rise in fuel prices,” the company said.
Intermodal revenue rose 23% to $437 million, while operating income rose 11% to $51.8 million.
Its dedicated contract carriage business saw its revenue rise 2% to $228 million, while operating income fell 17% to $18.3 million.
“Given the unprecedented rise in fuel prices during the first quarter 2008 and extreme weakness in freight demand in our truck segment, we are actually quite pleased with the relative performance,” Chief Executive Officer Kirk Thompson said in a statement.
Thompson called the current circumstances “what may be recorded as the worst freight recession in a long time,” and said the company will “continue to move further away from an asset-heavy truckload model to a more variable cost structure, which should produce free-cash flow and feature transportation services that reflect our competitive advantages.”
J.B. Hunt is ranked No. 9 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
