First look: Old Dominion Q4 earnings

LTL carrier beats expectations amid soft demand environment

Old Dominion will host a conference call at 10:00 a.m. EST on Wednesday to discuss fourth-quarter results. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Old Dominion Freight Line reported better-than-expected results for the fourth quarter amid “ongoing softness in the domestic economy.”

The Thomasville, North Carolina-based less-than-truckload carrier reported earnings per share of $1.23 Wednesday before the market opened, 7 cents higher than the consensus estimate but 24 cents lower year over year.

Old Dominion’s (NASDAQ: ODFL) revenue fell 7.3% y/y to $1.39 billion as tonnage per day was down 8.2% and revenue per hundredweight was off 0.4% (3.8% higher excluding fuel surcharges). The tonnage decline was the combination of a 7.6% drop in daily shipments and a 0.7% dip in weight per shipment.

Click for full report – “Old Dominion poised to take share when market turns”

A 75.9% operating ratio (operating expenses expressed as a percentage of revenue) was 410 basis points worse y/y but in line with management’s guidance. Salaries, wages and benefits expenses (as a percentage of revenue) were 250 bps higher y/y. The company also recorded lower gains on property and equipment sales, and saw a 100-bp increase in insurance and claims expenses after an annual adjustment to accident claims.

“The challenging macroeconomic environment over the past couple of years has created persistent demand headwinds for our business,” said President and CEO Marty Freeman in a Wednesday news release. “Nevertheless, our outstanding team has remained focused on executing our proven strategic plan by maximizing our operating efficiencies, maintaining our yield discipline and investing in our capacity and technology to further improve our service and support future growth.”

Shares of ODFL were up 3.5% before the market opened Wednesday.

Old Dominion will host a conference call at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday to discuss fourth-quarter results.

Click for full report – “Old Dominion poised to take share when market turns”

Table: Old Dominion’s key performance indicators

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Todd Maiden

Based in Richmond, VA, Todd is the finance editor at FreightWaves. Prior to joining FreightWaves, he covered the TLs, LTLs, railroads and brokers for RBC Capital Markets and BB&T Capital Markets. Todd began his career in banking and finance before moving over to transportation equity research where he provided stock recommendations for publicly traded transportation companies.