J.B. Hunt’s Fourth-Quarter Income Dips
Truckload carrier J.B. Hunt Transport Services said late Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit declined to $54.3 million, or 42 cents a share, from $57.8 million, or 39 cents, a year ago.
Revenue rose 11% to $945 million, the company said in a statement. Operating income rose 1% to $96 million, including a pre-tax writedown in the quarter.
Trucking segment revenue fell 14%, while truck operating income plunged 136% to a $5.1 million loss, including a writedown, the company said.
Intermodal revenue rose 25% to $482 million, while operating income rose 37% to $77 million.
For the full year, the company earned $213.1 million, or $1.55 per share, compared with a profit of $220 million, or $1.44 per share, in 2006. Revenue rose 5% to $3.49 billion.
“We continue to demonstrate progress toward moving our economic model from that of a primarily asset-based truckload carrier of the past to an asset-light transportation company,” said Chief Executive Officer Kirk Thompson.
The company’s intermodal business “had the best fourth quarter ever and our best year in history in 2007,” he said in a statement.
J.B. Hunt is ranked No. 9 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
