OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific Corp. hauled in 29 percent more second-quarter profit as the railroad handled 4 percent more shipments, but the results might have been better with some operational challenges.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company said Thursday it earned $1.51 billion net income, or $1.98 per share. That’s up from $1.17 billion, or $1.45 per share, a year ago.
The results exceeded the $1.94 per share that the analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected.
Union Pacific CEO Lance Fritz said the railroad’s performance was hurt by shortages of train crews and a tunnel outage in June, but it is working on improving its operations.
“Overall, I am pleased with the effort put forth by the entire Union Pacific team; however, I recognize the results could have been better,” Fritz said.
The railroad’s revenue grew 8 percent to $5.67 billion in the period. That surpassed the $5.6 billion analysts expected.
But Union Pacific’s expenses increased 10 percent to $3.6 billion as fuel costs jumped 48 percent to $643 million.
Fritz said he expects the economy to remain strong through the rest of the year.
Union Pacific shares have increased slightly more than 5 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased slightly more than 5 percent. The stock has risen 29 percent in the last 12 months.
The railroad operates 32,400 miles of track in 23 states.
Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UNP at https://www.zacks.com/ap/UNP
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