FedEx climbs on cheery annual profit forecast
LONDON: FedEx shares jumped 13 percent premarket on Wednesday after the delivery giant reassured investors with a largely upbeat annual profit forecast and said it would weigh options for its less-than-truckload business that one analyst valued at $30 billion.
FedEx air freight cargo planes parked at a FedEx regional hub at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California. – Reuters.
On Tuesday, the company projected fiscal 2025 earnings of $20 to $22 per share - the midpoint of which was slightly above analysts’ estimates - as cost cuts rolled out to tackle a slump in freight demand are set to yield $2.2 billion in savings.
The company is also mulling whether to keep or sell its FedEx Freight trucking business that generated revenue of $2.3 billion in the latest quarter. “It seems that the transformation at FedEx is building momentum and the strategic announcement with Freight should not be underestimated,” JP Morgan analyst Brian Ossenbeck said, upgrading the stock to “overweight” from “neutral” and raising his price target to a Street high of $359.
FedEx’s shares were trading at $290.2 and were set to add $8.3 billion to the company’s market value, if current gains hold. Shares of rival United Parcel Service were up 1.3 percent. Wall Street analysts were largely bullish on FedEx’s plan for the freight unit. “We think (strategic review of Freight business) could unlock significant value for shareholders,” Bernstein analyst David Vernon said.
“The key here is not just getting a higher multiple - it’s understanding that a stand-alone Freight business would be in a better position to close the margin gap to peers,” Vernon added. Jefferies analyst Stephanie Moore pegged the value of the business at $30 billion. FedEx is consolidating its separate delivery companies into a single entity to save costs and better compete with UPS and Amazon.
As a result, the company’s quarterly operating margin improved in the latest reported quarter to 8.5 percent from 8.1 percent a year earlier. FedEx executives have said slashing expenses and consolidating operations would bolster returns, even though demand remained weak for package deliveries due to sticky inflation and higher interest rates. — Reuters.
