C.H. Robinson Worldwide CHRW reported disappointing fourth-quarter 2022 results wherein both earnings and revenues missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Quarterly earnings of $1.03 per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.35 and declined 40.8% year over year. Total revenues of $5066.8 million lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $5601.8 million and declined 22.1% year over year, owing to lower pricing and volume across most of our services.
Operating expenses grew 6.2% year over year to $604.1 million. Adjusted gross profit fell 10.3% to $768.2 million, owing to lower adjusted gross profit per transaction in ocean and air.
C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. Quote
Segmental Results
At North American Surface Transportation, total revenues were $3,563.07million (down 8.5% year over year) in the fourth quarter. Segmental revenues were hurt by lower truckload pricing and volume. Adjusted gross profit at the segment ascended 5.7%.
Total revenues at Global Forwarding were $1,013.30million, down 52.7% year over year. Results were weighed down by lower pricing and volumes in CHRW’s ocean and air services, reflecting softening market demand. Adjusted gross profit at the segmentfell 39% year over year.
Revenues from other sources (Robinson Fresh, Managed Services and Other Surface Transportation) increased 6.2% to $490.44million.
Below we present the division of adjusted profit among the service lines (on an enterprise basis).
Transportation: The unit (comprising Truckload, Intermodal, LTL, Ocean, Air, Customs and Other logistics services) delivered an adjusted gross profit of $741.95million in the quarter under consideration, down 10.9% from the prior-year figure.
Adjusted gross profit at the Truckload sub-group climbed 2.2% year over year to $346.84million. LTL’s adjusted gross profit increased 7.1% year over year to $149.37million. Customs-adjusted gross profit fell 3.3% to $24.49million. Other logistics services’ adjusted gross profit rose 31.2% to $68.90million.
Adjusted gross profit at the Ocean transportation segment fell 42.7% year over year to $120.29million. The same at the air transportation sub-group fell 51.3% to $32.03million.
Balance-Sheet Data
CHRW exited the fourth quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $217.48 million compared with $187.53 million at the end of September 2022. Long-term debt was $920.04 million compared with $1.42 billion at the end of September 2022.
CHRW generated $773.4 million of cash from operations in the fourth quarter. Capital expenditures came in at $27.8 million in the reported quarter.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, the companyrepurchased shares worth $438.1 million and paid $69.1 million in cash dividends.
2023 Outlook
Capital expenditures for 2023 are anticipated between $90 million and $100 million. Full-year effective tax rate is anticipated between 19% to 21%.
Currently, C.H. Robinson carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Performance of Other Transportation Companies
United Airlines’ UAL fourth-quarter 2022 earnings of $2.46 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.07. In the year-ago quarter, UAL incurred a loss of $1.60 per share when air-travel demand was not as buoyant as in the current scenario. The fourth quarter of 2022 was the third consecutive profitable quarter at UAL since the onset of the pandemic.
Operating revenues of $12,400 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12,230 million. UAL’s revenues increased 51.37% year over year owing to upbeat air-travel demand. The optimistic air-travel demand scenario is also evident from the fact that total operating revenues increased 13.9% from fourth-quarter 2019 (pre-coronavirus) levels.
Delta Air Lines’ DAL fourth-quarter 2022 earnings (excluding 19 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.48 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.29 per share. DAL reported earnings of 22 cents per share a year ago, dull in comparison to the current scenario, as air-travel demand was not so buoyant then.
DAL reported revenues of $13,435 million, which also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13,030.3 million. Driven by the high air-travel demand, total revenues increased more than 41.87% on a year-over-year basis.
J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.’s JBHT fourth-quarter 2022 earnings of $1.92 per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.45 and declined 16% year over year.
JBHT’s total operating revenues of $3,649.62 million also lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,796.8 million. The top line jumped 4.4% year over year. Total operating revenues, excluding fuel surcharges, fell 2.9% year over year.
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