USA Truck’s 4Q, Full-Year Income Improve
USA Truck Inc. reported its highest quarterly earnings per share in more than nine years and announced it had its first full year of positive earnings per share since 2008.
The truckload carrier’s net income was $4.2 million, or 40 cents per share, turning around a loss of $4.6 million, or 45 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 6.1% to $150.1 million.
Its $8.6 million operating income included trucking, which tripled to $4.2 million, and its strategic capacity solutions brokerage business, which improved 50% to $4.4 million.
The Van Buren, Arkansas, company said in December it was expanding its SCS business by opening a new office in Florida and expanding the unit’s Chicago facility.
“Our robust fourth quarter capped a transformative year for USA Truck,” CEO John Simone said in a statement.
“As a result of our companywide focus on operational execution, profitable growth and cost effectiveness, we delivered our ninth consecutive quarter of improved results, our third consecutive quarter of positive operating income, and the company’s highest quarterly earnings per share in more than nine years,” he said.
“You have to pull many levers at the same time in order to be able to accelerate the rate of improvement,” Simone told Transport Topics Feb. 11.
Simone has been in the trucking business for 30 years, including 10 years with UPS Inc., where he was responsible for its truck-leasing company and later headed up eight products in its supply-chain unit, including ground transportation and logistics technology.
For the full year, USA Truck earned $6 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with a loss of $9.1 million, or 88 cents, in 2013. Revenue rose 8.6% to $602.5 million.
USA Truck is ranked No. 50 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
