FedEx Had an ‘Unprecedented’ Holiday Shopping Season

This week logistics company FedEx announced financial results for its most recent quarter and revealed that the holiday shopping season had been “unprecedented.”

On Thursday the company reported better-than-expected profits and revenues and CFO Fred Smith called it an “unprecedented” peak holiday shipping season.

Smith said that demand for the company’s “e-commerce and international express solutions to remain very high for the foreseeable future.”

The staggering results came in despite severe weather in February that impaired operations at several of its largest hubs. The weather had cut the company’s operating income by roughly $350 million, FedEx said.

FedEx shares jumped roughly 3% in after-hours trading Thursday as Wall Street digested the numbers.

For the fiscal third quarter 2021, ending February 28th, FedEx reported adjusted EPS of $3.47 a share. Estimates per Refinitiv had been expecting just $3.23.

Revenue came in at $21.51 billion while only $19.97 billion had been expected.

Net income was $939 million, or $3.47 per share, compared with $371 million, or $1.41 per share, during the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue saw a 23% jump from $17.49 billion during the same quarter last year. According to FedEx, the increase was due to “strong volume growth” in its domestic residential package delivery business and international shipping services.

CEO Fred Smith said FedEx expects “demand for our unmatched e-commerce and international express solutions to remain very high for the foreseeable future.”

According to Chief Financial Officer Michael Lenz, the improvement in the company’s third-quarter results reflects the “momentum in our business which continued through an unprecedented peak season.”

Along side UPS, FedEx has been distributing the COVID-19 vaccine, which Smith called, “the most important work in the history of FedEx.”

The company had started shipping the third authorized vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson in March, and expects a “significant uptick” in volume in the coming months.

“As manufacturers obtain approval to ship COVID-19 vaccines with greater temperature ranges and varying dosing allotments, we anticipate more of these packages moving to more places through our global network,” FedEx Express CEO Don Colleran said in a March 1 statement.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article