FedEx Corp., the world’s leading air-express group, on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected increase in quarterly earnings, helped by a rising worldwide economy.
The Memphis, Tennessee, transport group said fiscal third-quarter net income, including costs from staff reductions, was $207 million, or 68 cents a share. In the year-earlier quarter, when FedEx struggled against severe North American winter storms, the company had net income of $147 million, or 49 cents a share.
Excluding the costs, which were equal to 3 cents a share, profit for the quarter ended Feb. 29 would have been $216 million, or 71 cents a share, FedEx said in a news release.
Analysts had expected FedEx to earn 66 cents a share, excluding the charges, according to a consensus forecast among 17 analysts from the Reuters Research unit of Reuters Group Plc. Last December, FedEx said it expected third-quarter share profit between 60 cents and 70 cents before special items.
Revenue at FedEx, which acquired the Kinko’s copy center chain during the quarter, rose to $6.06 billion, from $5.55 billion a year earlier.
The company said it expected fiscal fourth-quarter share earnings to be $1.15 to $1.25, excluding the costs of the company’s staff-reduction costs. That would be up sharply from the 92 cents a share reported a year earlier.
Analysts had a consensus forecast of $1.15 a share for the fourth quarter, according to Reuters Research.
