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Canadian Pacific’s second quarter profit jumps

Image courtesy of Miroslav Volek/Flickr

Canadian Pacific’s (NYSE: CP) second quarter net income rose 66 percent amid a 13 percent increase in company revenue, the railroad reported on July 15. CP’s financials are reported in Canadian dollars, except for earnings per share. The Canadian dollar equals US$0.77.

Second quarter net profit totaled C$724 million compared with C$436 million in the second quarter of 2018. Put another way, second quarter net profit was US$5.17 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2019, compared with US$3.04 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2018. 

Operating income in the second quarter rose 31 percent to C$822 million from C$627 million for the same period in 2018.

Second quarter revenue totaled C$1.98 billion, compared with C$1.75 billion in the second quarter of 2018. Freight revenues rose for all commodities except for the metals, minerals and consumer products category. 


Operating expenses were C$1.16 billion in the second quarter of 2019, compared with C$1.12 billion in the second quarter of 2018.

Meanwhile, CP’s operating ratio was a record 58.4 percent in the second quarter of 2019, compared with 64.2 percent for the same quarter last year. 

CP chief executive officer Keith Creel attributed his company’s second quarter performance to the “strength” of precision scheduled railroading and CP’s commitment to deliver business to customers and serve the broader economy.

“This quarter, we saw revenue growth across every line of business, strong operating metrics and our best-ever second-quarter performance from a workload perspective, as measured by gross ton-miles,” Creel said. 


He continued, “As has been proven time and again, our operating model can perform well in all economic conditions and we will remain disciplined in controlling our costs and doing what we said we would do. Our strategy for sustainable, profitable growth is working and we look forward to a strong finish to 2019.”

CP’s operational metrics improved in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2018. Average terminal dwell time, which is the amount of time a train spends at a terminal, fell 4 percent to 6.4 hours, and average train speed rose 5 percent to 22.4 miles per hour.

CP hosted a quarterly earnings call at 9:30 a.m. on July 16.

Joanna Marsh

Joanna is a Washington, DC-based writer covering the freight railroad industry. She has worked for Argus Media as a contributing reporter for Argus Rail Business and as a market reporter for Argus Coal Daily.