Heavy Transportation Equipment Stocks Q2 Results: Benchmarking Greenbrier (NYSE:GBX)

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Heavy Transportation Equipment Stocks Q2 Results: Benchmarking Greenbrier (NYSE:GBX)

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Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company’s progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at Greenbrier (NYSE:GBX) and the best and worst performers in the heavy transportation equipment industry.

Heavy transportation equipment companies are investing in automated vehicles that increase efficiencies and connected machinery that collects actionable data. Some are also developing electric vehicles and mobility solutions to address customers’ concerns about carbon emissions, creating new sales opportunities. Additionally, they are increasingly offering automated equipment that increases efficiencies and connected machinery that collects actionable data. On the other hand, heavy transportation equipment companies are at the whim of economic cycles. Interest rates, for example, can greatly impact the construction and transport volumes that drive demand for these companies’ offerings.

The 14 heavy transportation equipment stocks we track reported a strong Q2. As a group, revenues were in line with analysts’ consensus estimates.

Big picture, the Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of inflation and employment. The former had been running hot throughout 2021 and 2022 but cooled towards the central bank's 2% target as of late. This prompted the Fed to cut its policy rate by 50bps (half a percent) in September 2024. Given recent employment data that suggests the US economy could be wobbling, the markets will be assessing whether this rate and future cuts (the Fed signaled more to come in 2024 and 2025) are the right moves at the right time or whether they're too little, too late for a macro that has already cooled.

Heavy Transportation Equipment stocks have held steady amidst all this with average share prices relatively unchanged since the latest earnings results.

Greenbrier (NYSE:GBX)

Having designed the industry’s first double-decker railcar in the 1980s, Greenbrier (NYSE:GBX) supplies the freight rail transportation industry with railcars and related services.

Greenbrier reported revenues of $820.2 million, down 21% year on year. This print fell short of analysts’ expectations by 10.9%. Overall, it was a mixed quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ volume estimates but a miss of analysts’ operating margin estimates.

"Greenbrier continued positive momentum in the third quarter of fiscal 2024," said Lorie L. Tekorius, CEO and President.

Greenbrier Total Revenue
Greenbrier Total Revenue

Greenbrier delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates and slowest revenue growth of the whole group. Interestingly, the stock is up 7.5% since reporting and currently trades at $52.18.