C.H. Robinson Profit Tumbles on Weak Freight Market
Low rates and sagging volumes hit freight broker as it faces shareholder activist pressure Eden Prairie, Minn.-based freight broker C.H. Robinson has been coping with falling revenue and activist pressure to break up the company. Photo: george frey/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images By Paul Ziobro Aug. 2, 2023 5:43 pm ET C.H. Robinson Worldwide’s second-quarter profit fell 72% as the company continues to grapple with weak demand, high inventories and excess capacity in the freight market. The Eden Prairie, Minn.-based freight broker on Wednesday reported a profit of $97.3 million, or 81 cents a share, compared with a profit of $348.2 million, or $2.67 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings were 90 cents a share, short of the 91 cents expected by anal
Eden Prairie, Minn.-based freight broker C.H. Robinson has been coping with falling revenue and activist pressure to break up the company.
Photo: george frey/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
C.H. Robinson Worldwide’s second-quarter profit fell 72% as the company continues to grapple with weak demand, high inventories and excess capacity in the freight market.
The Eden Prairie, Minn.-based freight broker on Wednesday reported a profit of $97.3 million, or 81 cents a share, compared with a profit of $348.2 million, or $2.67 a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted earnings were 90 cents a share, short of the 91 cents expected by analysts, according to FactSet.
Revenue fell 35% to $4.42 billion, primarily due to lower pricing in its ocean and truckload services. Analysts had expected $4.62 billion. Operating expenses decreased 5.2%.
C.H. Robinson said that competition in the global freight market is suppressing transportation rates. In North America, surface transportation volumes and load-to-truck ratios remain near the low levels of 2019, while in the freight forwarding market, ocean vessel and airfreight capacity continues to exceed demand.
The results come shortly after Dave Bozeman, a former Ford Motor and Amazon.com executive, was appointed chief executive of C.H. Robinson, which has been coping with falling revenue and activist pressure to break up the company.
“We are staying focused on what we can control,” Bozeman said.
Write to Paul Ziobro at [email protected]
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