OMAHA, Neb. -- Norfolk Southern hauled in 27% more third-quarter profit as the railroad increased shipping rates and reduced the number of delayed deliveries that shippers have been complaining about this year.
The Atlanta-based railroad said it earned $958 million, or $4.10 per share, up from $753 million, or $3.06 per share, a year ago. Those results included a charge of $117 million, or 28 cents per share, related to the raises the railroad offered to its employees. Earnings per share also got a 58 cent boost from a state tax law change.
But even with those one-time changes, Norfolk Southern's results beat the $3.75 per share that analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting.
The railroad said its average train speed improved to 19.1 mph (30.58 kilometers) during the third quarter, and the number of hours railcars spent waiting in terminals decreased to 25.9 hours. Both those measures are significantly better than the rest of the year as the railroad continued to hire more employees, although they still lag behind a year ago.
“We are confident our broad and continued service improvement will drive growth in the months ahead,” CEO Alan Shaw said.
Norfolk Southern said it the number of train crews it employs is at the highest level since last summer with 7,335 workers, and there are another 950 new conductors still in training.
The railroad's revenue jumped 17% to $3.34 billion even though the number of shipments it hauled slipped 2%. That also beat Wall Street expectations. FactSet said analysts were expecting Norfolk Southern to report $3.19 billion revenue.
Norfolk Southern is one of the nation’s largest railroads, and it operates about 19,500 miles (31,382 kilometers) of track in 22 Eastern states and the District of Columbia.
