In its first quarterly report since being spun off in November from XPO Inc., transportation company RXO Inc. on Tuesday reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of 28 cents in the fourth quarter on revenue of $1.1 billion.
Revenue for the same period of 2021, when RXO’s businesses were still part of XPO (NYSE: XPO), was $1.3 billion.
The EPS figure beat analysts’ estimates by 5 cents per share, according to polls on Barchart.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company (NYSE: RXO) reported a 19.6% gross margin, up 250 basis points year over year (y/y).
Shares rose 3.3% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
It was a noisy quarter, with $44 million in costs related to the spinoff contributing to a $4 million fourth-quarter net loss. That compares with $42 million in net income in the Q4 2021. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization came in at $64 million, compared to $77 million in the ’21 fourth quarter.
Freight brokerage volume rose 4% y/y and set company records for loads per day, RXO said. Besides brokerage, its main business, RXO is the largest provider of last-mile heavy goods transport in the U.S and also handles managed transportation and freight forwarding.
RXO digitally covered 87% of its loads in Q4, according to CEO Drew Wilkerson. Downloads of the company’s driver app, RXO Drive, increased by 45 percent y/y, Wilkerson said.
Brokerage gross margin was 17.9 percent in the fourth quarter, up 290 basis points y/y. The firm expects brokerage volumes to continue to grow on a y/y basis in Q1 2023.
Approximately 62 percent of RXO’s full-year 2022 revenue came from customers that conducted business with more than one service offering, the company said.