UPS’s 1st quarter profits up 11%

UPS’s 1st quarter profits up 11%    United Parcel Service Thursday reported a 10.5 percent jump in first quarter net income to $975 million, compared to $882 million last year.
   Operating income was up 12.3 percent to $1.55 billion, from $1.39 billion in the same quarter 2005. UPS’s consolidated first quarter revenue improved 16.5 percent to $11.52 billion from $9.88 billion.
   The company attributed the improvement to a 9 percent increase, or 1.24 million packages per day, to its global small package volume, which averaged about 15 million packages each day.
   UPS’s core U.S. domestic ground transportation business reported a 5.9 percent volume increase to an average 13.3 million daily packages. Domestic package revenue went up 9.6 percent to $7.46 billion, of which ground package revenue was $4.94 billion up 8.8 percent.
   International package revenue for the latest quarter grew 17.3 percent to $2.16 billion with volumes rising 29.1 percent to 1.74 million a day.
   Revenue for UPS Supply Chain Solutions, the logistics arm of the group, increased 53.9 percent to $1.89 billion.
   For the full year, UPS maintained its expectations of an increase in diluted earnings per share of 11 to 16 percent.