Tag: higher (Page 2 of 2)

United Lifts 2019 Profit Target on Strong Travel Demand

October 15, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

Oct 15 (Reuters) – United Airlines on Tuesday topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit, boosted by higher fares and lower fuel costs, and lifted its 2019 profit target despite the continued grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX.

Chicago-based United is one of three U.S. airlines that have each had to cancel more than 2,000 monthly flights through the end of the year as Boeing Co’s 737 MAX remains grounded following two deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

The flight cancellations have weighed on airline profits and costs, but strong travel demand, despite concerns of a global economic slowdown, continued to offset MAX headwinds and disruption in Hong Kong and China.

As a result, United raised its 2019 adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance to $11.25-$12.25 versus $10.50-$12.00 previously.

United shares, which closed up 1% at $87.88 before the earnings release, were about 1% higher in after-hours trading.

Total operating revenue rose 3.4% to $11.38 billion, underpinned by the airline’s three-year strategy to build up flight connections through its main U.S. hubs.

But closely watched unit costs excluding fuel and profit-sharing expenses, a concern for investors, rose 2.1%.

The airline, which is in talks with Boeing over 737 MAX compensation, did not provide any details on the estimated financial impact of the grounding.

Adjusted net income rose to $1.05 billion, or $4.07 per share, in the third quarter, from $834 million or $3.05 per share a year earlier.

Analysts on average had forecast $3.95 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

United management will host a conference call to discuss results on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT).

Fellow U.S. MAX operators Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, which have both warned of a pretax profit hit from the MAX grounding, are due to report quarterly results next week.

United, Southwest and American are all scheduling without the MAX until early January.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Matthew Lewis)

Brazil Airline Azul’s Profits Drop 20% on Higher Expenses

May 9, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

SAO PAULO, May 9 (Reuters) – Higher operational costs weighed on Brazil’s No. 3 airline, Azul SA, sending profits in the first quarter down 20% to 137.7 million reais ($35.06 million), despite significantly higher revenue compared to the same period last year.

While revenue grew 16% to 2.5 billion reais, personnel costs surged 37% amid continued expansion at the company.

Fuel costs also increased significantly, while other undisclosed costs jumped 34% to 224 million reais in the period.

Azul and its Brazilian competitors have faced higher costs in recent quarters due to the continued depreciation of the local currency, the real. While passengers buy their tickets in reais, many of the airline’s expenses, such as fuel, are denominated in the stronger U.S. dollar.

Earlier this year, Azul signed a tentative deal that ultimately fell through to take over a set of coveted domestic routes that were to be auctioned off by its rival Avianca Brasil, which is going through a bankruptcy protection process.

The routes were then set to go to its two larger competitors, Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes and LATAM Airlines Group, dealing a blow to Azul as it had hoped to break into the lucrative Sao Paulo-Rio de Janeiro route.

That route is currently dominated by Gol and LATAM and is considered to be among the most profitable in the country.

At the last minute, a judge indefinitely suspended Avianca’s auction which was due earlier this week.

($1 = 3.9273 reais) (Reporting by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

CN Rail Quarterly Profit Rises on Petroleum Shipments

April 29, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

April 29 (Reuters) – Canadian National Railway Co reported a 6 percent rise in quarterly profit on Monday, as it transported higher volumes of petroleum and chemical products.

U.S. listed shares of the company rose 2.1 percent in after-hours trading.

The company’s net income rose to C$786 million, or C$1.08 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from C$741 million, or C$1 per share, a year earlier.

However, excluding one-time items, the railroad company earned C$1.17 per share, missing the analyst average estimate of C$1.18, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Canada’s largest railway operator said total carloads, the amount of freight loaded into cars, rose less than a percent.

Operating ratio, a closely watched productivity metric that measures expenses as a percentage of revenue, rose to 69.5 percent from 67.8 percent a year earlier. The lower the ratio, the more efficient a railroad.

($1 = C$1.34)

(Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Union Pacific Quarterly Profit Beats Estimates

April 18, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

FILE PHOTO: A Union Pacific rail car is parked at a Burlington National Santa Fe (BNSF) train yard in Seattle, Washington, U.S., February 10, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

(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)

Textron Profit Beats on Higher Aircraft Sales

April 17, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

FILE PHOTO: Cessna employee works on an engine of a Cessna business jet at the assembly line in their manufacturing plant in Wichita, Kansas March 12, 2013. REUTERS/Jeff Tuttle

(Reuters) – Cessna business jet maker Textron Inc reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, benefiting from robust aircraft deliveries, sending its share up 1.6 percent in early trading.

Business jet demand has been growing steadily in the United States, the world’s biggest market, on the back of an expanding economy and rising corporate profits.

Textron said it delivered 44 jets in the first quarter ended March 30, up from 36 last year. Commercial turboprop deliveries rose to 44 aircraft from 29 last year.

“We think this quarter has pretty much ticked all the boxes for Textron. Aviation growth has continued, with a positive book to bill in the quarter,” Vertical Research Partners analyst Robert Stallard said.

Textron has faced delays in final certification of its newest super mid-size Longitude jet, which is expected to contribute a ‘big chunk’ to the company’s revenue growth in 2019.

Analysts have warned that the certification delays from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration due to partial government shutdown followed by the regulator’s intense focus on re-certifying Boeing Co’s 737 MAX aircraft might impact sales growth at the company in the short.

Though the aviation business was among the drivers for a profit beat, Textron’s revenue missed Wall Street estimates, hurt by lower sales in its systems unit, which makes tactical armored patrol vehicles.

Textron re-affirmed its full-year profit outlook range of $3.55 to $3.75 per share.

Sales in the company’s aviation business, its biggest, rose 12.3 percent to $1.13 billion in the first quarter, while sales in the systems unit fell more than 20 percent to $307 million.

The company’s net income fell to $179 million in the quarter ended March 30 from $189 million a year earlier.

Textron earned 76 cents per share, above analysts’ average estimate of 68 cents, according to Refinitiv data.

Textron’s revenue fell 5.7 percent to $3.11 billion, below analysts’ estimates of $3.17 billion.

(Reporting by Divya R and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Boeing says aircraft demand supports even faster 737 production

February 6, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

SEATTLE (Reuters) – A top Boeing Co executive said on Wednesday market demand was strong enough to support an even higher production rate of 63 single-aisle 737 aircraft per month but such an increase depends more on suppliers being able to keep up.

The world’s largest planemaker is also looking to remove as much risk as possible from a proposed new mid-sized jet plan by focusing on batting down development costs and applying lessons learned across multiple civil and military programs, Chief Financial Officer Greg Smith told a conference.

Boeing is currently building 52 737 aircraft per month at its Seattle-area factory. Reuters reported this week that Boeing plans to speed up to 57 planes per month in June if it can smooth out supplier delays.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)