RXO Closes First Full Year as Company With Q4 Results

(RXO)

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RXO closed out its first full year as a stand-alone company by reporting fourth-quarter earnings gains on a year-over-year revenue decline, the company detailed Feb. 8.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based asset-light transportation provider posted net income of $2 million, or 2 cents per diluted share, for the three months ending Dec. 31. That compared with a loss of $4 million, negative 3 cents, during the same time the previous year. Total Q4 revenue decreased by 12.7% to $978 million compared with $1.12 billion a year ago.

“RXO continued to execute well in the fourth quarter despite the prolonged soft freight environment,” RXO CEO Drew Wilkerson said in a statement. “For the third consecutive quarter, our brokerage business delivered double-digit volume growth with strong gross margin. Our managed transportation business secured several new managed expedite customers, solidifying our position as a leading provider of this service.”

The results came close to matching expectations from Wall Street analysts, who forecast EPS of 3 cents on Q4 revenue of $995 million, according to Zacks Consensus Estimate.

RXO has released its 4Q 2023 results today, including double-digit brokerage volume growth for the third-consecutive quarter. #GrowGrowRXOhttps://t.co/NVp6WvzFXm pic.twitter.com/UItTSTDaNw — RXO (@rxoinc) February 8, 2024

During the quarter, Wilkerson noted that RXO’s focus on profitable growth and cost discipline enabled it to expand companywide gross margins sequentially. He also said the company’s agility in responding to customer demands and changing market conditions helped it gain more freight.

“I’m proud of all that we achieved in 2023,” Wilkerson said. “In 2024, we will remain focused on our playbook — taking profitable market share while making strategic investments in our business. Given the current market conditions, we continue to reduce costs, which, combined with our strong brokerage sales pipeline, will position RXO to deliver rapid earnings growth when the market inflects.”

Truck brokerage segment revenue in Q4 decreased 8.1% to $610 million compared with $664 million the previous year. The brokerage business grew Q4 volumes by 15% year-over-year, RXO said. That includes full truckload volume growth of 11% and less-than-truckload volume growth of 45%. Brokerage contract volume increased by 23% year-over-year because of a strong brokerage sales pipeline, the company said. It also noted that 97% of brokerage loads were covered digitally.

Complementary services segment revenue for Q4 decreased 15.8% to $411 million from $488 million the prior year. Gross margin was 20.9% for the quarter, up 40 basis points year-over-year. Loads provided by the managed transportation business to its brokerage business increased both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. The segment includes freight forwarding, last-mile and managed transportation services operations.

• Last-mile revenue decreased by 7.2% to $257 million from $277 million.
• Managed transportation revenue decreased 20.2% to $103 million from $129 million.
• Freight forwarding revenue decreased 37.8% to $51 million from $82 million.

For the full year of 2023, RXO reported net income of $4 million, 3 cents, on revenue of $3.93 billion, compared with net income of $92 million, 79 cents, on revenue of $4.8 billion in 2022.

RXO ranks No. 18 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.

RXO started as a tech-enabled brokered transportation platform operating within former parent company XPO. Its operations in November 2022 were spun off into a stand-alone company.