(Reuters) – Union Pacific Corp on Thursday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, as the U.S. railroad raised prices, helping offset the impact of severe winter weather and record flooding that damaged rails in the Midwest.
Shares rose 2.7 percent to $173.80 in premarket trading.
Union Pacific’s operating ratio, a measure of operating expenses as a percentage of revenue and a key metric for Wall Street, increased 1 point to 63.6 percent from a year ago.
A lower ratio means more efficiency and higher profitability.
Total operating revenue fell to $5.4 billion from $5.5 billion.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company’s net income rose to $1.4 billion, or $1.93 per share, in the first-quarter ended March 31 from $1.31 billion, or $1.68 per share, a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, expected a profit of $1.89 per share and revenue of $5.50 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Union Pacific and Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF are the largest U.S. freight rail operators with an annual revenue of more than $20 billion each.
(Reporting by Rachit Vats in Bengaluru and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)