Knight-Swift Reports Surge in Q2 Earnings
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Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings saw growth throughout the company, including a 90.6% increase in net income during the second quarter, the company reported July 21.
The Phoenix-based truckload motor carrier posted net income of $152.8 million, or 92 cents a diluted share, for the three months ending June 30. That compared with $80.2 million, 47 cents, during the year-ago period. Total revenue increased 24% to $1.32 billion from $1.06 billion.
“We believe truckload shippers are recognizing the value of our unique and unmatched terminal network and industry-leading trailer pool capacity,” CEO Dave Jackson said in a statement. “Our strong performance in recent quarters is the result of having invested significant capital and many years in developing a powerful combination of assets, technologies, people and customer relationships toward producing distinctive value to our customers.”
Jackson
The results were mixed in terms of Wall Street expectations. Analysts had been looking for 87 cents per share and quarterly revenue of $1.27 billion, according to Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Year-over-year revenue and operating income by segment:
• Trucking revenue increased 8.2% to $882.6 million from $816 million during the 2020 period. Operating income rose 56.3% to $168.5 million from $107.8 million. This was driven by a 10.3% increase in revenue per tractor despite a slight decline in the number of tractors.
• Logistics revenue jumped 141.8% to $162.2 million from $67.1 million. Operating income saw an even bigger percentage increase, 372.5%, to $14.4 million from $3 million. The results were driven by a 55.3% gain in load counts and a 55.8% improvement in revenue per load.
The Select platform helped drive much of the improvements in the logistics segment. The Knight-Swift digital brokerage platform was introduced in the first half of 2020. Loads booked through the platform increased 18% from this year’s first quarter. The report also stated that more than 4,500 carriers were digitally matched through the platform.
• Intermodal revenue increased 39.4% to $115.3 million from $82.7 million. Operating income climbed to $5.8 million from an operating loss of $4.5 million. This was driven by a 16.3% improvement in average revenue per load, a 19.9% increase in load count and 7% rise in the number of tractors.
Knight-Swift also finalized the acquisition of less-than-truckload specialist AAA Cooper Transportation during the quarter. The $1.35 billion transaction included nearly 3,000 tractors and 7,000 trailers as well as approximately 70 service centers with a terminal door count of more than 3,400.
Looking ahead, Knight-Swift expects strong demand for over-the-road truckload capacity to continue throughout 2022. But capacity expansion continues to be limited as new tractor builds are constrained by parts availability. The company also noted sourcing and retaining drivers will remain challenging and lead to additional driver wage inflation. It expects those factors will continue to support a favorable rate environment.
Knight-Swift ranks No. 6 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
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