Knight Transportation earnings, revenues continue to fall in Q3

The truckload transportation and logistics services provider reported a net income of $23.4 million on $280.5 million in revenues in the third quarter of 2016, year-over-year decreases of 22.9 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.    Knight Transportation, Inc. saw its earnings and revenues continue to tumble in the third quarter of 2016 compared with the same 2015 period, according to the company’s most recent financial statements.
   The Phoenix, Ariz.-based truckload transportation and logistics services provider reported a net income attributable to Knight Transportation of $23.4 million for the quarter, a 22.9 percent decline from the same 2015 period.
   Diluted earnings per share (EPS) stood at $0.29 in Q3 2015, compared with $0.37 per share the previous year, as revenues slipped 6.5 percent from Q3 2015 to $280.5 million.
   Knight’s trucking segment saw operating income slide 19.4 percent to $34.4 million for the quarter. Excluding fuel surcharges, revenues for the segment stood at $204.2 million for the third quarter, a year-over-year decline 3.6 percent.
   The company attributed the negative earnings growth in its trucking division primarily to a 0.8 percent decrease in revenue per tractor, which was caused by a 2.1 percent drop in average revenue per loaded mile, a 1.6 percent increase in average miles per tractor, and a 30 basis point increase in non-paid empty mile percentage.
   Operating income in Knight’s logistics segment, which consists of brokerage, intermodal and other logistics services, plummeted 32.9 percent to $2.8 million in the third quarter as revenues fell 10.6 percent to $52 million compared with the same 2015 period.
   The year-over-year revenues decline in the third quarter was primarily a result of the company exiting its agriculture sourcing business in the first quarter of 2016, Knight said.
   For the first nine months of 2016, Knight posted company earnings of $70.6 million on revenues of $838.9 million, year-over-year decreases of 19.3 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively. The company reported diluted EPS of $0.87 per share through the first three quarters compared with $1.06 per share in the same 2015 period.
   “The freight environment remained moderate in the third quarter of 2016 when compared to the same quarter last year,” Knight Transportation President and CEO Dave Jackson said of the results. “We continued to see improvement in our asset utilization and experienced more favorable supply/demand dynamics as the third quarter progressed. We are beginning to see more non-contract opportunities in the first few weeks of October.
   “With significantly declining new truck orders, the weak used equipment market, and additional regulatory burdens expected to phase in during the next year, we expect continued improvement in the supply/demand relationship in the coming quarters,” said Jackson.
   “Our focus remains on improving the productivity of our assets in our trucking segment and expanding load volumes and margins in our logistics segment,” he added. “During the third quarter, when compared to the same quarter last year, we improved our miles per tractor 1.6 percent and grew our brokerage load volumes 7.0 percent. In certain markets, capacity began to tighten during the quarter, which resulted in our brokerage gross margins contracting by 140 basis points.”