Big Brown's Quarter Not So Bad ... Especially Compared With FedEx's Results - Gerson Lehman
The people who run United Parcel Service are a tough bunch to satisfy. Nearly everybody else in the transport industry would die to earn $15 million net profit every day in the waning days of a recession. Not UPS.
Earnings slumped in the second quarter to "only" $445 million, a 49 percent drop from 2008 second-quarter earnings. At the company's mainstay, its U.S. domestic package segment which produces 63 percent of revenue, the unit's operating ratio was only a so-so 93. For UPS, this is like striking out three times in four at-bats.
But what really is impressive, analysts' whining not withstanding, is UPS's performance vis-a-vis its major competitor, FedEx. While UPS was earning $846 million using a Teamsters work force, non-union FedEx actually lost $779 million for its corresponding six months.
The people who run United Parcel Service are a tough bunch to satisfy. Nearly everybody else in the transport industry would die to earn $15 million net profit every day in the waning days of a recession. Not UPS.
Earnings slumped in the second quarter to "only" $445 million, a 49 percent drop from 2008 second-quarter earnings. At the company's mainstay, its U.S. domestic package segment which produces 63 percent of revenue, the unit's operating ratio was only a so-so 93. For UPS, this is like striking out three times in four at-bats.
But what really is impressive, analysts' whining not withstanding, is UPS's performance vis-a-vis its major competitor, FedEx. While UPS was earning $846 million using a Teamsters work force, non-union FedEx actually lost $779 million for its corresponding six months.
