Special items boost Canadian National’s 4Q profit, after it dealt with weather and a strike
By APTuesday, January 26, 2010
Special items boost Canadian National’s 4Q profit
Special items boosted Canadian National Railway’s profit, helping it avoid a decline in its fourth-quarter profit, as the railroad struggled with a five-day engineer’s strike and weather problems.
The Montreal-based railroad said it earned 582 million Canadian dollars, or 1.23 Canadian per share ($555.9 million, $1.18 per share) in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, up from 573 million Canadian, or 1.21 per share, a year earlier.
Not counting the sale of a rail line and a tax recovery, it would have earned 424 million Canadian dollars, or 90 Canadian cents per share ($405 million, 85 cents per share). Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of 91 Canadian cents per share.
In addition to the weather and the strike, the results were also hurt by the stronger Canadian dollar, the company said.
Revenue fell 14 percent to 1.88 billion Canadian dollars ($1.80 billion), from 2.2 billion Canadian dollars a year earlier. Analysts were expecting 1.96 billion Canadian dollars.
The company said the revenue drop was largely because of the impact of the stronger Canadian dollar for revenue that came in as U.S. dollars, as well as a smaller fuel surcharge because fuel prices fell, and lower freight volumes. That was somewhat offset by higher freight rates, the company said.
Shipments grew for coal, autos, grain and fertilizers, and petroleum and chemicals, the company said. But truck-to-rail shipments fell 3 percent, metals and minerals were down 2 percent, and forest products remained depressed.
The company said it expects 2010 earnings per share to rise at least 10 percent from the adjusted profit of 3.24 Canadian dollars per share it posted for 2009.
Canadian National shares fell a penny to close at $52.24 on the New York Stock Exchange. They rose 11 cents to $52.35 after the results were released.
(This version CORRECTS per-share earnings excluding items in 3rd graf.)
