C.H. Robinson Reports Earnings Growth on Lower Revenue
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C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. delivered an earnings increase during the second quarter, despite lower revenue, with the execution of its strategic initiatives, the company reported July 30.
The Eden Prairie, Minn.-based logistics and shipping company posted net income of $152.5 million, or $1.26 a diluted share, for the three months ending June 30. That compared with $126.3 million, $1.05, during the same time the previous year. Total revenue decreased by 7.7% to $4.14 billion from $4.48 billion.
C.H. Robinson noted in the report that the revenue decline was primarily due to divestiture in its Europe operations, lower pricing in ocean services and lower fuel surcharges in truckload services. Still, earnings improved with the company pursuing its implementation of a new, leaner operating model since its investor day in 2024.
“We recognized that some people had doubts and didn’t understand how this would enable the company to change its trajectory,” CEO Dave Bozeman said during a call with investors. “Now with six consecutive quarters of consistent outperformance, through the disciplined execution of the strategy that we shared at our 2024 investor day, there is no doubt in our minds that we are on the right path.”
Our Q2 results reflect the strong execution of our enterprise strategy in the face of a challenging freight environment.
We continue to outperform relative to market due to the expertise of our people and the value we bring to our customers & carriers. ➡️ — C.H. Robinson (@CHRobinson)
Bozeman stressed that the company is not waiting for a market recovery to improve its financial results, noting the strategies being executed are designed to be effective in any environment. He pointed out that the company still is in the early phases of the plan but that it already has demonstrated an ability to grow market share and expand margins.
“This has enabled us to approach our mid-cycle operating margin targets, despite operating in an elongated trough of the freight cycle,” Bozeman said. “We are accelerating our progress by harnessing and scaling the evolving power of AI to drive automation across the full life cycle of a load. Our industry-leading innovations, not only enhance the service and value we deliver to our customers, but also improve our operational performance by automating tasks that free up our talented people to focus on more strategic high-value work.”
Bozeman added that has involved pioneering ways to eliminate tasks, augment capabilities and better utilize labor with technology. He noted, too, that the leaner operating model enabled the company to take a more disciplined approach to drive stakeholder value.
“From a macro standpoint, fluid trade policies continue to create uncertainty, making planning activities more difficult for our over 83,000 customers around the world,” Bozeman said. “For some of them, tariffs caused them to reduce their import volumes.
“For instance, when U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods increased to 145% in April, numerous retailers limited imports to only essentials needed for fall, like back-to-school products. Others accelerated shipments to beat tariff deadlines from Southeast Asia, and some stuck to their standard peak season schedules.”
Results were mixed in terms of Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts had estimated $1.17 per share and quarterly revenue of $4.22 billion, according to Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Revenue by Segment
- North American Surface Transportation revenue decreased 2.4% to $2.92 billion from $2.99 billion during the 2024 period. This was primarily driven by lower fuel surcharges in the truckload service. The average truckload linehaul rate per mile charged to customers increased approximately 3.5% in the quarter compared with the prior year, while truckload linehaul cost per mile increased 3.5%. This resulted in a 1.5% increase in truckload adjusted gross profit per mile. LTL adjusted gross profit rose 4.4% versus the year-ago period due to increases in adjusted gross profit per order and LTL volumes. Income from operations increased 16.2% to $164 million from $141.1 million.
- Global Forwarding revenue decreased 13.4% to $797.8 million from $921.2 million last year. This was primarily driven by lower pricing in ocean services. Ocean adjusted gross profit decreased 7.5% due to a decline in shipments and adjusted gross profit per shipment. Air adjusted gross profit increased 11.5% due to an increase in adjusted gross profit per metric ton shipped, that was partially offset by a decline in metric tons shipped. Income from operations increased 25.3% to $51.3 million from $41 million.
C.H. Robinson ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America and No. 20 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest global freight companies.
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