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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowCeladon Group Inc. saw a big jump in revenue in its latest quarter but a smaller profit that fell short of analyst expectations.
The Indianapolis-based trucking company on Wednesday reported revenue of $275.4 million for its fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31, a 23.8 percent increase over the $222.4 million it brought in during the same period of 2014.
Profit decreased 22.4 percent, to $6.6 million, down from $8.5 million in the same quarter of the previous year.
Earnings per share dropped to 24 cents, from 36 cents the year before.
The earnings-per-share figure fell short of the consensus estimate of analysts by 9 cents, but the revenue results topped expectations by $6 million.
Celadon CEO Paul Will said quarterly earnings were hurt by $1.2 million in expenses related to the company’s acquisition of Tango Transport LLC during the quarter.
"We had great success in the quarter growing top-line revenues in a less than robust freight environment," Will said in a written statement. "We believe these efforts position us well to continue to focus on improving our key operating metrics.
Will said costs related to driver training, recruitment and retention continue to increase.
"We saw improvement in some of our key operating statistics that we believe will be beneficial long term as capacity is challenged by a very competitive driver-recruiting market, in addition to the numerous pending and proposed federal safety initiatives such as electronic logging devices and mandatory truck speed limiters," Will said.
Celadon shares fell 2.8 percent Wednesday, to $7.88 each, prior to the earnings announcement.
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