First look: Old Dominion almost a sub-70 OR

Old Dominion produced the performance even as most of its metrics that measure how much business it conducted were down. Compared to a year ago, the company shipped fewer tons, had lower tonnage per day and had reduced shipments.

But its revenue per hundredweight excluding fuel rose 5.5% to $29.71. Revenue per hundredweight including fuel, which appears to have been a tailwind for the company during the quarter, jumped to $37.84 from $32.84.

Revenue per shipment excluding fuel took a bigger jump, up 7.2%.

Weight per shipment inched up 1.7%.

In the prepared statement released in conjunction with the earnings, Old Dominion CEO Marty Freeman said the company also had a 99% on-time service rate and a claims ratio of just 0.1%.

“The strength of our second quarter financial results reflects continued improvement in demand trends and the benefits of our long-term focus on yield discipline and operational execution,” Freeman said.

Old Dominion, like several other publicly-traded LTL companies, has had a rough run since early June. The vague threat of Amazon efforts in the LTL space have sent several LTL stocks sinking since then.

Old Dominion’s 52-week high was on June 9 at $252.03. It closed Tuesday at $226.28 but is still up 37.7% in the last 52 weeks.

Earnings per share of $1.68 were reported by SeekingAlpha to have beaten the Wall Street consensus by 15 cents. Revenue of $1.55 billion was slightly higher than the consensus.

An earnings call is set for 10 a.m. EDT.

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