Landstar Tops Second-Quarter Forecasts With Net Income, Revenue
Truckload carrier and logistics provider Landstar System produced broad-based improvement among its services and generated second-quarter increases in net income and revenue, topping the consensus estimate of analysts by 2 cents a share.
The Jacksonville, Fla.-based carrier, which ranks No. 9 on the Transport Topics list of the top 100 for-hire carriers in North America, reported July 26 for 13-week periods ended July 1 and June 25, 2016. Net income was $37.5 million, or 89 cents per share, on revenue before investment income from insurance operations of $870.4 million.
Bloomberg News said the consensus earnings estimate for the quarter for Landstar was 87 cents.
In the 2016 quarter the company earned $32.3 million, or 76 cents, on revenue of $775.2 million.
Landstar uses an owner-operator/broker model and is highly connected to the spot market, which recently has been very active.
CEO Jim Gattoni said in the earnings statement: “The pricing environment for our truckload services continued to show slow improvement in the 2017 second quarter, as industrywide truck capacity is firming in certain regions, especially with respect to flatbed loads.”
Commenting on coming months, Gattoni said, “The number of loads hauled via truck during the first few weeks of July is trending with the historical second-quarter to third-quarter pattern. As such, I expect 2017 third-quarter revenue to be similar to the company’s 2017 second-quarter revenue.”
Truck-rail intermodal was the single soft spot in the Landstar portfolio. Quarterly revenue declined, year-over-year, to $21.5 million form $26.2 million, and loads hauled dropped to 10,310 from 12,150 in the 2016 quarter.
In addition to intermodal, the company broke out results for dry and refrigerated truckload, open-platform loads, less-than-truckload transportation and freight forwarding. All posted increases in quarterly revenue and number of loads hauled.
The company’s Business Capacity Owners, or owner-operators, generated 47% of quarterly revenue, and brokers brought in 46%.
