Yahoo Finance Old Dominion (ODFL) Gears Up for Q1 Earnings: What's in Store?
Old Dominion Freight Line ODFL is scheduled to report first-quarter 2024 results on Apr 24 before market open.
The company has an impressive earnings surprise history. ODFL’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the preceding four quarters and missed once, the average beat being 1.6%.
Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. Quote
Given this backdrop, let’s check out the factors that might have influenced Old Dominion’s performance in the quarter under review.
We expect the company’s performance to have been hurt by soft revenues due to weak freight demand. The bulk of revenues is generated by the Less-Than-Truckload or LTL Service unit. Our estimate for segmental revenues indicates a 1.05% decrease from fourth-quarter 2023 levels. We predict revenues from other sources to be down 6.6% from fourth-quarter 2023 actuals.
On the flip side, lower expenses led by the company’s cost-control initiatives are likely to have aided the bottom-line performance. Despite lower expenses, the top-line weakness, as a result of a lackluster freight-demand scenario, is likely to have led to a deterioration in operating ratio (operating expenses as a percentage of revenues). Our estimate for this key metric is currently pegged at 73.7% compared with 71.8% reported in fourth-quarter 2023. A lower value of this metric is preferable.
What Our Model Says
Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for ODFL this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is not the case here. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they're reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Old Dominion has an Earnings ESP of -0.26% and a Zacks Rank #3.
Highlights of Q4
Old Dominion's fourth-quarter 2023 earnings per share of $2.94 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.86 and increased 0.7% year over year. Revenues of $1.49 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.5 billion but inched up 0.3% year over year. Stable demand for LTL services and successful yield-improvement initiatives aided results.
Stocks to Consider
Here are a few stocks from the broader Zacks Transportation sector that investors may consider, as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to beat on their first-quarter 2024 earnings.
American Airlines AAL has an Earnings ESP of +6.51% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
AAL is scheduled to report first-quarter 2024 earnings on Apr 25. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter earnings has declined 21.74% over the past 60 days. AAL has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters. The average beat is 119%.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies WAB has an Earnings ESP of +4.98% and a Zacks Rank #3. WAB is scheduled to report first-quarter 2024 earnings on April 24.
WAB has an impressive earnings surprise history, having surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average beat being 6.63%.
Stay on top of upcoming earnings announcements with the Zacks Earnings Calendar.
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Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. (ODFL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (WAB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
