the results
FDX reported quarterly results for its 4Q11 (the FDX fiscal year ends in May) before the start of trading in New York yesterday. The company posted earnings per share of $1.75, up 31.5% year on year, on revenues of $10.6 billion, a 12% gain vs. sales in the fourth quarter a year ago. The numbers, which Wall Street typically forecasts with a very high degree of accuracy, exceeded analysts’ eps estimates by $.04.
eye-popping earnings guidance for fiscal 2012
In the same earnings release, FDX gave its initial earnings guidance for 1Q12, as well as for fiscal 2012 as a whole. For the full fiscal year, the company expects to earn $6.35-$6.85 per share; for 1Q12 it thinks it will have income of $1.40-$1.60. Taking the midpoint of both ranges, that would imply profit growth for the full year of about 35%, and for the first quarter of about 25%.
These are eye-popping numbers. They reflect:
–the strength of FDX management,
–the company’s high gearing to world trade, which responds in a high-beta way to world economic growth, and
–FDX’s significant exposure to international markets, which the company thinks will approach half of total revenue, and represent the majority of the firm’s profits, this year, for the first time in its history.
the stock
Let’s say the earnings guidance signals that FDX really thinks $7 a share is within reach for the fiscal 2012. That would imply that the stock is now trading at around 13x forward earnings, or a slight premium to the market.
I’ve owned FDX on occasion over the years. My overall take is that the management is excellent, but that the stock is so widely followed and respected that it seldom trades at a bargain price. My first instinct is that the shares do look cheap today. But glancing at the issue’s multiple relative to the market during the past decade, this is about where FDX normally trades. So I’m sitting on my hands for the moment.
the FDX economic outlook
Transport and logistics companies are interesting in themselves. But there’s also a second reason they’re so widely watched. Because they have such intimate knowledge of the production plans of their customers, they have an unusually good understanding about how the economy is faring in the areas where they operate. With its long experience, and its position as the premier global air transport firm, FDX has a particularly advantaged view.
Here’s what it’s expecting over the coming twelve months:
–“moderate” economic growth, with the rest of the world doing better than the US,
–acceleration of growth as the year progresses. Why?
ο FDX thinks that 40% of the current “soft patch” is due to the the negative effects of the earthquake/tsunamis in Fukushima during March. The company can already see activity picking up, however.
ο Higher oil prices caused another 40% of the slowdown, in FDX’s view. The oil price has been falling for two months, however, in large part because consumers have reacted by using less. FDX expects oil to stay at today’s level or lower–exhibiting the same behavior it has in similar circumstances in the past.
ο The remaining 20% is negative sentiment, based on the previous two factors. FDX expects sentiment will gradually recover as consumers see supply-chain recovery in Japan and lower petroleum prices.
my comments
Two things strike me about the FDX report. First, the company’s economic forecast sounds very much like the one Fed Chairman Bernanke outlined yesterday. Second, even a so-so economic environment is enough to allow well-managed companies to make very large profit gains–implying good stockpicking will be well-rewarded in the current environment.