Bumper fiscal 4Q for FedEx

   FedEx secured fourth quarter fiscal year operating profits of $1.1 billion, an increase of 11 percent over the same period in 2012, the company said Wednesday.
   For its full fiscal year ending March 31, FedEx had operating profits of 3.2 billion, marginally lower than the previous year. Fourth quarter revenue was $11.4 billion, up 3.6 percent year-on-year, while full year revenue was $44.3 billion, up 3.7 percent on the previous year.
   FedEx had net income of $679 million in its fourth quarter, surpassing analysts’ expectations, while its net income for the full fiscal year was $1.9 billion, down 5.3 percent on the previous year.
   “We remain focused on improving margins and returns in all of our businesses,” Alan B. Graf Jr., FedEx Corp.’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said in a statement. “The pace of that improvement is expected to be moderate in fiscal 2014 and then accelerate in fiscal 2015. Our profit improvement program is progressing, but we continue to see the effects of customers selecting lower-rate international services. FedEx Express will further decrease capacity between Asia and the United States in July.”
   Among the company’s individual business units, FedEx Ground performed the best in the fourth quarter, with operating income up 13 percent year-on-year at $557 million, on revenue that grew 12 percent to $2.8 billion.
   The largest FedEx Express segment also saw healthy profit growth in the quarter. Operating income was $460 million, up 11 percent, on revenue of $6.9 billion, up 3 percent. FedEx Ground had an operating margin in the fourth quarter of 20.1 percent, compared to 6.6 percent for FedEx Express.
   FedEx Freight, meanwhile, had $81 million in operating profits in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the same period in 2012, on revenue that declined slightly, to $1.4 billion.
   American Shipper wrote Tuesday that FedEx was likely to exceed analysts expectations. – Eric Johnson