Schneider Q1 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Increase Year Over Year

Schneider National, Inc. (SNDR) first-quarter 2025 earnings per share (EPS) of 16 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 14 cents and improved 45% from the year-ago quarter’s levels. Operating revenues of $1.40 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.44 billion. The top line improved 6.2% year over year. Revenues (excluding fuel surcharge) increased 8% year over year to $1.26 billion.

Mark Rourke, president and chief executive officer of Schneider, stated, “We delivered results for the quarter in line with our expectations while navigating the fluid operating environment. Revenues excluding fuel surcharge of nearly $1.3 billion were the second highest for a first quarter in our history, and all our reportable segments improved revenues, earnings, and margin year over year. As the quarter progressed, increasing economic uncertainty lowered consumer sentiment and market expectations.”

Income from operations (adjusted) grew 47% from the prior-year quarter’s level to $44.2 million.

SNDR’s Q1 Segmental Highlights

Truckload revenues (excluding fuel surcharge) in the first quarter of 2025 were $613.7 million, up 14% year over year, owing to the acquisition of Cowan Systems and improved revenue per truck per week, partially offset by lower Network volumes. Truckload revenue per truck per week was $3,953, up 3% year over year. Both Network and Dedicated grew revenue per truck per week year over year, owing to improved rate per mile. While Dedicated average truck count was up 27% year over year, Network average truck count was down 10%.

Truckload income from operations was $25.1 million in the first quarter of 2025, up 68% year over year, owing to the acquisition of Cowan Systems and improved revenue per truck per week mentioned above. Truckload operating ratio fell to 95.9% from 97.2% in the year-ago quarter.

Intermodal revenues (excluding fuel surcharge) in the first quarter of 2025 were $260.4 million, up 5% year over year, owing to volume growth of 4% and improved revenue per order. Revenue per order was $2,467, up 1% year over year, owing to a higher rate per mile.

Intermodal income from operations in the first quarter of 2025 was $13.8 million, up 97% year over year. Apart from volume growth and increased revenue per order, a decline in rail-related costs from enhanced network optimization and cost containment actions contributed to the rise in earnings. Intermodal operating ratio fell to 94.7% from 97.2% in the year-ago quarter.

Logistics revenues (excluding fuel surcharge) for the first quarter of 2025 came in at $332.0 million, up 2% year over year, owing to the acquisition of Cowan Systems, partially offset by lower brokerage revenue per order and volume.

Logistics income from operations of $8.1 million grew 50% from the prior-year quarter, owing to effective brokerage net revenue management, partially offset by lower brokerage volume noted above. Logistics operating ratio fell to 97.6% from 98.3% in the year-ago quarter.

Liquidity & Cash Flow

Schneider exited the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $106.2 million compared with $117.6 million at the end of the prior quarter. Long-term debt was $565.8 million at the end of the reported quarter compared with $420.8 million at the end of the prior quarter.

SNDR generated $91.7 million of cash from operations in the first quarter. Net capital expenditures were $97.1 million.

In February 2023, SNDR announced the approval of a $150.0 million stock repurchase program. As of March 31, 2025, SNDR had repurchased a total of 4.1 million Class B shares for $103.9 million under the program.

On April 28, 2025, SNDR’s board of directors declared a $0.095 dividend payable to shareholders of record as of June 13, 2025, expected to be paid on July 10, 2025. During first-quarter 2025, SNDR returned $17 million in the form of dividends to shareholders.

SNDR’s 2025 Outlook

Darrell Campbell, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Schneider, stated, “We have made significant progress in structurally positioning our business to be nimble through our commercial, cost, asset efficiency, and capital allocation actions. These efforts have allowed us to deliver through uncertainty and to be in a position to capitalize on our enhanced operating leverage when the freight market improves.”

Campbell further added, “While the current macro-economic environment is leading to declining consumer sentiment and increasing shipper uncertainty, we expect to deliver improved year over year results through 2025, although tempered versus our previous outlook.”

Schneider has updated its guidance for 2025. The company has reduced its 2025 adjusted earnings per share guidance to the range of 75 cents-$1.00 from the previously guided range of 90 cents-$1.20. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of 93 cents lies within the updated guidance.

The company now expects net capital expenditures in the range of $325-$375 million compared with the prior view of $400-$450 million. Our estimate is pegged at $427.1 million.

Full year effective tax rate is still expected to be in the range of 23-24%.

SNDR’s Zacks Rank

Currently, Schneider carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

We note that another major player from the Zacks Transportation – Services industry, Expeditors International of Washington EXPD, will report its first-quarter earnings numbers early next month. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)

Expeditors, a leading third-party logistics provider, is based in Seattle, WA. EXPD currently has an Earnings ESP of +3.76% and a Zacks Rank of 3. The company is slated to report first-quarter 2025 results on May 6.

While weak volumes (with respect to air-freight tonnage and ocean containers) stemming from soft demand and declining rates are likely to have hurt EXPD’s performance, efforts to cut costs in the face of demand weakness are likely to have driven the bottom line.

EXPD beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters and matched estimates once, the average beat being 11.6%.

Q1 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

United Airlines

United Airlines’ UAL first-quarter 2025 earnings per share (excluding 25 cents from non-recurring items) of 91 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 75 cents. In the year-ago quarter, the Chicago-based airline reported a loss of 15 cents per share. 

Operating revenues of $13.21 billion marginally fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.22 billion. The top line increased 5.4% year over year despite the tariff-induced slowdown in domestic air travel demand. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 89.7% of the top line) rose 4.8% to $11.9 billion. UAL flights transported 40,806 passengers in the first quarter, up 3.8% year over year.

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air LinesDAL reported first-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 9 cents from non-recurring items) of 46 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 40 cents. Earnings increased 2.2% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

Revenues in the March-end quarter were $14.04 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.81 billion and increasing 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) rose 3.3% year over year to $13 billion.

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