FedEx Corp. on Thursday announced between $2.2 billion and $2.7 billion in cost savings for the fiscal year ahead, and said it would raise shipping rates for air and ground services by an average of 6.9% starting in January.
The plans followed preannounced quarterly results last week that stunned Wall Street and raised deeper anxieties about the company and the U.S. economy.
Those planned cuts, which added specific figures to cost-reduction plans announced last week, will largely come from FedEx’s internationally focused Express business. Management said $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion in savings would be drawn from that unit, with plans to lower flight frequencies and park jets.
Also read: Why FedEx’s profit warning is such bad news for the U.S. economy
Less would come from FedEx’s Ground unit, whose trucks haul packages to businesses and residences in the U.S. and Canada. The company said $350 million to $500 million in savings would come from that unit, including from closing some operations and halting Sunday operations.
FedEx said another $350 million to $500 million would come from putting off other projects, and closing some FedEx Office and corporate locations.
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executives also announced a program to “accelerate progress” to save $4 billion by 2025.
Shares of FedEx rose 1.7% on Thursday afternoon. Rival UPS lost 2.5%.
FedEx last week preannounced fiscal first-quarter earnings per share that were well below expectations. The company also withdrew its full-year outlook, forecast weaker trends and announced aggressive cost cuts, hiring halts and closures, sending shares on their biggest weekly drop since 1987. One economist said the dour forecast aligned with his view for a “massive deceleration” in the U.S. economy.
Many of those results were reiterated Thursday. The package-deliverer reported net income of $875 million, or $3.33 per share, compared with $1.1 billion and $4.09 per share in the period a year ago.
Adjusted earnings were $3.44 per share, compared with $4.37 per share in the period a year earlier, and well below FactSet’s estimate for $5.14.
FedEx reported sales of $23.2 billion, compared with $22 billion in the year-ago period. But that also missed expectations for $23.6 billion.
“First-quarter consolidated operating results were adversely impacted by global volume softness that accelerated in the final weeks of the quarter due to weakening economic conditions,” FedEx said in a statement on Thursday. “In addition, results were negatively affected by service challenges at FedEx Express.”
FedEx’s quarterly earnings conference call is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Before the call, analysts had been wondering how much of FedEx’s difficulties during the quarter were due to internal challenges and weaker demand globally. They’d also been wondering how management’s read on package volumes changed since June, when FedEx said it expected “additional earnings momentum” during its current fiscal year.
Demand for goods, and thus a demand for shipping them, began to fade this year, after more people resumed traveling, dining out, attending concerts and resuming other prepandemic activities. Analysts have also grown concerned about inflation’s impact on demand for package deliveries.
FedEx last week said its large, internationally focused Express business took a hit from “macroeconomic weakness in Asia and service challenges in Europe,” leading to a roughly $500 million sales shortfall. Sales in FedEx’s Ground business were also around $300 million below company forecasts.
But others have noted FedEx’s longer-term difficulties in growing profits and margins, and tensions with some contract drivers over pay, as those drivers deal with their own rising costs.
FedEx stock is down around 40% so far this year. By comparison, the S&P 500 index
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was down 21% over that time.
