UPS Reports Higher 1Q Profit; Reaffirms Earnings Guidance
UPS Inc. Thursday reported a higher first-quarter profit on strong e-commerce sales, reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance and said it plans to buy a Hungary-based logistics company.
Its first-quarter profit rose to $1.04 billion, or $1.08 per share, from $970 million, or $1 per share, a year ago. Revenue rose 2.3% to $13.4 billion.
Separately, UPS said it will buy Hungary-based pharmaceutical logistics company Cemelog Zrt, as part of its ongoing global growth and investment strategy. Terms were not disclosed, and UPS said it expects the deal to be completed this quarter.
The company cited strong e-commerce sales in the post-holiday period in January as helping to drive its quarterly performance, Chief Financial Officer Kurt Kuehn said in a statement.
“The pace of growth for the remainder of the quarter was in line with our expectations,” Kuehn said, adding that although some economic uncertainty remains, the company reaffirmed its full-year adjusted diluted earnings guidance of $4.80 to $5.06 per share.
Its supply chain and freight unit’s operating profit fell to $143 million from $166 million, while revenue rose slightly to $2.19 billion.
Less-than-truckload unit UPS Freight increased its shipments per day by 3.6%, with tonnage up 5.1% and revenue per hundredweight up 1.7%.
Domestic package operating profit rose to $1.1 billion from $995 million, while revenue rose to $8.27 billion from $8 billion a year ago.
The international package unit’s adjusted operating income was $391 million compared with $408 million a year ago, while revenue rose slightly to $2.98 billion.
UPS is ranked No. 1 on the Transport Topics 100 listing of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
