C.H. Robinson beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit and revenue on Wednesday, helped by the logistics firm’s efforts to reduce costs and higher pricing in its ocean services business.
Adjusted gross profits in the company’s ocean freight business rose by 57.4% over a year, driven by a 47% increase in adjusted gross profit per shipment and a 7% increase in shipments, in general.
The ongoing geo-political tensions in the Red Sea and disruption due to strikes at U.S. East and Gulf coast ports helped freight forwarders in increasing shipping charges.
Despite a prolonged slump in demand and low shipment volumes, logistics companies are focusing on improving their profit margins.
“We improved the quality of our volume in the third quarter and continued to expand our North American surface transportation (segment) gross profit margin,” said CEO Dave Bozeman said.
The Minnesota-based company posted an adjusted income of $1.28 per share for the quarter ended September 30, compared with analysts’ average expectations of $1.15, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Total revenue rose 7% to $4.64 billion, driven by higher pricing and volume in its ocean services business, beating analysts’ estimates of $4.53 billion.
(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar and Aatreyee Dasgupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)