Q1 2020 Old Dominion Freight Line Inc Earnings Call

Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (Nasdaq: ODFL) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a new two-year stock repurchase program authorizing the repurchase of up to $700 million of its outstanding common stock. This new repurchase program will commence upon the completion, expiration or termination of the current two-year repurchase program, which was announced on May 16, 2019. The Company repurchased $403.0 million of its common stock over the twelve-month period ended April 30, 2020, and has consistently repurchased its common stock through Board-authorized programs since 2014. The remaining authorization under the current repurchase program was $39.2 million as of April 30, 2020.

Even as business began to slide in the second half of March, and most measurements of volume were down for the three months, Old Dominion Freight Lines (NASDAQ: ODFL) posted a first quarter in which it reached a record operating ratio (OR) for that calendar period.The first quarter's OR was 81.4%, a 60 basis point improvement over 2019's 82%. This occurred even as several barometers of volumes all pointed lower: intercity miles (down 2.3%); total tons (down 2.4%); tonnage per day (down 3.9%); shipments (down 3.6%); and shipments per day (down 5.1%).But revenue barometers were all higher. Revenue per intercity mile was up 2.5%. Other indicators: revenue per hundredweight, up 2.6%; same statistic, excluding fuel, up 3.3%; revenue per shipment, up 3.9%; same statistic, excluding fuel, up 4.6%. In a prepared statement accompanying the earning release, President and CEO Greg C. Gantt said demand for ODFL services "declined in the last half of March, however, due to the widespread effects of the COVID‑19 pandemic on the domestic economy."Wall Street liked the earnings. At approximately 10:45 a.m., ODFL stock was up 7.48%, a gain of $9.59 to $137.84.Weight per shipment was up 1.3% for the quarter but looked to be rising as the quarter ended and rolled into April. "We experienced a significant increase in our average weight per shipment and this trend has also continued into April," Gantt said.  "While this helped offset the decline in shipments per day, an increase in average weight per shipment generally has the effect of reducing revenue per hundredweight," he said. View more earnings on ODFLRevenue per hundredweight is known as a less-than-truckload (LTL) company's yield. For the quarter, it was $22.68, up 2.6% from $22.10. But in an interim report published in early March, ODFL said yield through that point in the quarter was up 4.3%. In turn, yield is impacted by weight per shipment, which was up 1.3%. The interim report had it down 1.5%. In a report after the earnings release, the transportation analysis team at Deutsche Bank led by Amit Mehrotra noted that in its release, ODFL indicated its approach toward pricing was stable. The trend then in yield, Deutsche wrote, "(indicates) this was more mix-driven rather than indicative of deteriorating pricing dynamics."The Deutsche Bank team also wrote, "The company was very clear in the release that decelerating yield is not a reflection of pricing but rather higher weight per shipment (i.e. higher weight = less $ per hundredweight but it is positive for mix/margin)...which we take as a positive indication of industry pricing trends."The improved barometers in revenue per hundredweight and shipment even in the face of declining revenue led the company overall to post net income of $133.1 million for the quarter, down just about $150,000 from the first quarter of 2019. Operating income rose to $183.1 million from $178.4 million. Revenue declined to $987.36 million from $990.78 million in the first quarter of 2019. On the company's earnings call, one analyst said she believed it was the first sequential decline in revenue for ODFL in 20 years. Salaries, wages and benefits rose to $524.4 million, up slightly from $522.3 million. But in a period in which complaints of rising insurance costs are prevalent in every sector of the trucking industry, Old Dominion's "insurance & claims" expense line actually fell to $9.85 million from $11.17 million in the corresponding quarter of 2019.Other notable statistics in the earnings report: * The Deutsche team said the report was better than expectations. "Relative to our expectations...revenue was $13M better while expenses were exactly in line, translating into a $13M/7% underlying EBIT beat."  * ODFL's cash stockpile dropped to $356.97 million from $403.57 million. Its long-term debt is $45 million, up from essentially zero at the end of last year.  * Its capital expenditures for the quarter were $52.2 million. That includes a drop in real estate spending of about $50 million in the first quarter, "as certain projects will be deferred to a future period due to the current trend for shipments." Capital expenditures  in 2020 are expected to be $265 million. * The net income figures do not reflect a $10.1 million bonus paid to drivers as part of a pandemic relief/reward announced in March.See more from Benzinga * YRC Receives Grace Period For Union Benefits Amid 'Sharp Decline' * Trucking Stocks Are Doing About As Miserable As The Broader Stock Market * Less-Than-Truckload Headwinds Continue, Old Dominion Sees Small Decline(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Decline in LTL tonnage and soft freight demand is likely to get reflected in Old Dominion's (ODFL) first-quarter 2020 performance

Trucking facilities tend to leave a sizable footprint in the communities where they operate. Their construction and expansion can become a flashpoint and set off local political battles.Love's Travel Stops is facing some of that opposition in its attempt to build a truck stop in Glendale, Arizona, on what had been farmland. More than halfway across the country, Old Dominion Freight is trying to build a new terminal in Youngstown, Ohio, where it already has one. There, the company appears likely to receive tax breaks to support its efforts.The opponents don't always win. Consider the case about 18 months ago of a new Pilot J travel center in the Los Angeles region, with the prospect of almost 200 new parking spots. It ultimately was approved.In the case of Love's in Glendale, a spokesman for the city said, "Some neighbors in the area have raised concerns. The city has provided opportunities for them to voice concerns at council meetings, public hearings and a neighborhood meeting."In a news report about the dispute carried by KNXV, the local ABC affiliate in Phoenix, a resident named CJ Unzen said of those opposed to the Love's facility that the group is worried about potential crime, safety issues and diesel fumes. "We're not against the trucking industry, we're not against truckers and we're not even against truck stops," she said. "We just do not believe that this is the right location — we do not believe that they should be near any neighborhoods."The area where the former farmland is targeted for the travel center had been in an unincorporated section near Glendale. But it has since been annexed by the city.The story also said city planning staff had made a presentation on the project late last year, identifying the travel center as being in line with current uses in the area, which is near a major highway, Loop 303, which links Interstate 10 west of Phoenix with north-south Interstate 17. "City staff cited the growing number of warehouses and industrial buildings built or planned for the area near where the travel center would be built," the news report said. There is no other truck stop in Glendale. A spokesman for Love's in the story published by KNXV said if the Love's was built, it would be the 13th in the state for the chain.In response to an email from FreightWaves, a Love's spokeswoman said the company did not yet know how many parking spaces would be part of the project. The spokeswoman also confirmed comments in the KNXV story from Love's spokesman Chad Previch, who was quoted as saying that the city has worked with a traffic engineer on a study that is being reviewed by Glendale and the state. He also said Love's would take up 10-12 acres of the site.In Ohio, Old Dominion Freight Line wants to build a second terminal in Warren County in the northwest portion of that state. According to a story in the Tribune Chronicle, the LTL carrier is seeking a property tax break on the site, which would be built in Lordstown. The local newspaper said approval for the tax request "seems likely." It also said the tax break would result in a drop of about 60% in ODFL's tax bill over 10 years. Although the project is slated at $6 million, the size of the tax bill can't be known yet. But the Tribune Chronicleestimated it would be about $27,500 per year compared to the levy if there was no break offered. .Lordstown is the location of a shuttered GM plant that was bought late last year by Lordstown Motors, which has plans to build battery-powered pickup trucks at the site. GM, however, is planning on building a battery plant in Lordstown and the planned ODFL site is adjacent to that, according to the Tribune Chronicle.See more from Benzinga * Getting Crews On And Off Ships And Airplanes * US Rail Volumes Rise On A Week-To-Week Basis * E-commerce Drives Multi-Pronged Expansion At UPS Airlines(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Despite coronavirus concerns, Old Dominion's (ODFL) commitment to reward its shareholders is encouraging.

Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (Nasdaq: ODFL) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share of common stock, payable on June 17, 2020, to shareholders of record at the close of business on June 3, 2020.

Weakness in the LTL services segment hurts Old Dominion's (ODFL) Q1 results.

Assessing Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc.'s (NasdaqGS:ODFL) past track record of performance is an insightful exercise...

Old Dominion (ODFL) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.

A sharp decline in the amount of freight hauled by Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (NASDAQ: ODFL) this month has been accompanied by an unexpected shift: a big increase in the weight per shipment.For an LTL carrier like ODFL, that increase can create problems for maintaining its yield as measured by revenue per hundredweight. In its first-quarter earnings, ODFL management cited an increase in weight per shipment as a reason why revenue per hundredweight had deteriorated during the period.In the call with analysts that accompanied the release of the earnings, CFO Adam Satterfield laid out some of the numbers the company has seen in its business, many of which don't logically tie together but are coming out of a market that is unprecedented in the body blows and disruptions it has dished out.In March, Satterfield said, weight per shipment increased 6.3%. From February to March, that translated to a 113-pound gain, with the end result of revenue per hundredweight (cwt) dropping 56 cents. Revenue per cwt for the quarter was $22.68, up from $26.10 in the first quarter of 2019 but below where it had been trending toward after the first two months of the quarter.Satterfield noted in the call that an increase in weight per shipment does not work in perfect reverse correlation to yield. So although LTL pricing at its most basic calculation is set by weight, "It is important to understand revenue per hundredweight is a yield measurement that is not always equivalent to actual pricing," Satterfield said on the earnings call, according to a transcript supplied by SeekingAlpha. "Multiple factors can have a significant impact on revenue per hundredweight," he said, citing average length of haul along with weight.That jump in weight per shipment was historic; ODFL had never recorded one that big previously, Satterfield said. Between June and July 2018, weight per shipment rose 60 pounds. That was in one of the strongest freight markets in history, and LTL carriers were fretting about truckload volumes spilling over into the LTL sector.But according to Satterfield, that increase then led to an increase of 54 cents in revenue per cwt excluding fuel surcharges, as opposed to the drop in revenue per cwt that this jump in weight per shipment created.He also said that increases in weight per shipment are normally seen "in an environment where the economy was really strong," marking the current trend as an outlier.What the LTL carrier is carrying also is a factor in yield, Satterfield said. "Changes in revenue per hundredweight are also not linear with respect to changes in mix," he said.The trend has continued into April, Satterfield said. The average weight per shipment this month is up close to 10% from last April, he said. But that's one of the only barometers that's up; Satterfield said revenue per day is down close to 20% in April compared to April 2019 and shipments are "trending slightly worse than revenue."April shipments are generally 0.9% higher than March, Satterfield said. He estimated they are down about 15% from March.But as negative as the company's shipments have been, ODFL expected worse. "Our actual results have been slightly better than we initially expected when the stay-at-home and similar orders were implemented throughout the country," Satterfield said of the impact on ODFL so far.Responding to a question from an analyst, Satterfield said that "multiple factors" were creating the increase in weight per shipment. Elsewhere in the call, it was noted that about 20% of ODFL's customers were closed. The increase in weight per shipment, Satterfield said, could be nothing more than "which customers remain open and the fact that there's probably more demand for those customers' products."Satterfield compared the decline ODFL is facing with what it dealt with during the start of the great recession in 2008 and 2009. He said the fourth quarter of 2008 dropped about 5% or 6% and then declined 15% to 20% in the first quarter, "and then it kind of got to its worst in the second quarter."During this slowdown, he said, the company did start to see a significant downturn in March, but it was mostly in failing to get the normal bump that ODFL sees at the end of March going into April. "And it may have been a little bit soft, but I think that many customers still had kind of orders in the chain, if you will, and we continue to make some of those deliveries," Satterfield said."But now, and kind of as we anticipated, we saw the rapid drop-off in April, and it's obviously much harder to respond to that type of change and to be able to keep the network of 238 service centers remaining fluid and our service metrics high," Satterfield said, while praising the company's operations team, "and how they've made these adjustments cutting out costs, minimizing empty miles."And although the company did see a sharp downturn at the start of April, Satterfield said the decline had steadied and is not continuing.Satterfield said that although the market is tough, he is not seeing price wars break out. The LTL providers are "disciplined," he said. Additionally, they aren't in position to do a lot of price cutting."When you look at many of the carriers' margins, it's not really in a position to really go out and try to trade price for volume," Satterfield said. "In fact, it's probably better to go out and try to implement more of an increase to try to shore up their profit levels."Photo Credit: Old DominionSee more from Benzinga * Old Dominion Posts Highest 1Q OR Despite Drop In Revenue * YRC Receives Grace Period For Union Benefits Amid 'Sharp Decline' * Trucking Stocks Are Doing About As Miserable As The Broader Stock Market(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Amid coronavirus concerns, Old Dominion (ODFL) cuts quarterly dividend by approximately 35% to 15 cents per share.

Old Dominion (ODFL) delivered earnings and revenue surprises of 0.00% and -0.25%, respectively, for the quarter ended March 2020. Do the numbers hold clues to what lies ahead for the stock?

With the COVID-19 crisis sending the U.S. economy in a recession, we're looking at what companies managed to thrive during the last recession for guidance.

Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (Nasdaq: ODFL) today announced financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2020. The financial results for the first quarter of 2020 include $10.1 million of expense related to special employee bonus payments made in March. These bonus payments were provided to non-executive employees in appreciation for their extraordinary effort in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Old Dominion Freight Line's's (NASDAQ:ODFL) stock is up by a considerable 12% over the past month. Since the market...

The industrial sector includes companies that produce machinery, equipment, and supplies that are used in construction and manufacturing, as well as providing related services. These companies are closely tied to the economy, and their business volume often shrinks during recessions, though each industrial subsector performs differently.

Old Dominion (ODFL) doesn't possess the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely earnings beat in its upcoming report. Get prepared with the key expectations.

The $800 billion trucking industry scrambles to keep supply chains moving as coronavirus triggers skyrocketing demand for necessities.

Old Dominion revamps business model to adapt to lower volume while paying $10.1 million in bonuses to non-executive employees in appreciation for their effort in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.