Expeditors International beats quarterly estimates, helped by higher rates, demand

Expeditors International of Washington

18/02/2025 14:45

Feb 18 (Reuters) - Global freight forwarder Expeditors
International of Washington  EXPD.N  reported fourth-quarter
profit and revenue above Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, as
strong demand for its ocean and air freight services helped with
rate increases.
    Shares of the company were up 1.4% in morning trade.
    Red Sea disruptions and labor actions at U.S. ports along
with threats of potential new tariffs prompted shippers to
front-load essential goods to mitigate any disruptions,
benefiting freight forwarders like Expeditors.
    Additionally, the company said that strong demand from Asia,
along with increased e-commerce business and higher demand for
technology products, further constrained its air capacity and
pushed rates higher.
    The company continues to have limited visibility going
forward as "it is extremely difficult to predict the impact to
global air supply and demand that may result from actions such
as the anticipated U.S. elimination of certain de minimis
exemptions," CEO Jeffrey Musser said.
    The Bellevue, Washington-based company reported a quarterly
per share profit of $1.68. Analysts on average expected it to
post a profit of $1.40, according to data compiled by LSEG.
    Its revenue increased 30% to $2.95 billion for the quarter
ended December 31, above estimates of $2.81 billion.
    Revenue at the company's air freight segment rose to $1.06
billion from $866.1 million last year, while its ocean freight
segment reported a revenue of $908.4 million, compared with
$511.9 million a year earlier.

 (Reporting by Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay
Kishore)
 ((Abhinav.Parmar@thomsonreuters.com;))