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☆ How Fred Smith's crown jewel, FedEx Express, became the company's problem child — and how FedEx can save it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

FedEx Express, which does precisely-timed deliveries , has been struggling the most. FedEx is at a critical point in its 52-year evolution and founder Fred Smith's pride and joy — the company's Express delivery service — has become the firm's problem child. "Can FedEx Express shrink itself to prosperity?" "For a very long time, over 10 years, improved Ground service is diluting or cannibalizing existing Express deliveries," Maciuba said. "Was there a tremendous amount of fat in FedEx Express?

☆ Amazon, other retailers revamp 'free' shipping as costs soar
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Lisa Baertlein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Alyssa PointerLOS ANGELES, March 24 (Reuters) - There is no such thing as free shipping. "The days of free delivery are numbered," Ken Morris, managing partner at Cambridge Retail Advisors, said of the fast-changing retail marketing tool. It is an open secret that most retailers raise product prices to subsidize free shipping. Postal Service hitting record levels, the industry where nearly three-quarters of e-commerce companies offer some sort of free shipping is rethinking the financial cost of habituating shoppers to free shipping. While retailers like Amazon and fashion purveyor Asos Plc (ASOS.L) have raised thresholds for fast shipping, others are dropping free shipping altogether or taking product prices up again.

Fedex has been wringing costs from its bloated operations by shuttering offices, cutting jobs, reducing flights, grounding airplanes and canceling profit-sapping Sunday deliveries in far-flung areas. "Our cost actions are taking hold, driving an improved outlook for the current fiscal year," Chief Executive Raj Subramaniam said in a statement. Adjusted income for the fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 28 came in at $865 million, or $3.41 per share. Earnings per share were down $1.18 from the year earlier, but 68 cents higher than analysts' average estimate. FedEx shares jumped 11.3% to $227.12 in after hours trade.

March 16 (Reuters) - FedEx Corp (FDX.N) on Thursday raised its fiscal 2023 profit forecast and reported progress on its plan to shave $3.7 billion in costs from its global delivery business, and its shares jumped 12%. Fedex has been wringing costs from its bloated operations by shuttering offices, cutting jobs, grounding airplanes and canceling profit-sapping Sunday deliveries in far-flung areas. On Thursday, FedEx forecast fiscal 2023 adjusted profit of $13.80 to $14.40 per share, up from its previous projection of $12.50 to $13.50. Adjusted income for the fiscal third quarter ended Feb. 28 came in at $865 million, or $3.41 per share. At the close of the regular trading session on Thursday, FedEx shares were up about 18% year-to-date, versus the 8% gain in shares of more profitable rival United Parcel Service (UPS.N).

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: FedEx, First Republic Bank and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A worker sorts packages at a FedEx Express facility on Cyber Monday in Garden City, New York, US, on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. FedEx reported adjusted earnings of $3.41 per share, topping analysts' estimates of $2.73 per share, according to Refinitiv. Meanwhile, the company's revenue fell below expectations. FedEx posted $22.17 billion in revenue, while analysts had estimated $22.74 billion. First Republic Bank — The bank's shares were down 15% during after-hours trading.

"We do not believe the optimism is yet justified," Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker wrote in a recent note. Those plans helped FedEx report better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results on Dec. 20, sparking a stock rally that offset a swoon in mid-September, when the company retracted financial forecasts issued just three months earlier and blamed a swift pullback by customers. Analysts are skeptical that FedEx can deliver a repeat performance in the fiscal third quarter that ended on Feb. 28, as demand from e-commerce and other sectors remains soft. He expects FedEx to report adjusted earnings of $2.52 per share for the quarter - about 20 cents less than analysts' average estimate complied by Refinitiv IBES. Reporting by Kannaki Deka in Bengaluru and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Exclusive: C.H. Robinson in advanced talks to name Barber as new CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Barber, who spent nearly 35 years working at package delivery company UPS before retiring in early 2020, joined the C.H. Robinson board as a director late last year. A spokesperson for the company said there is "no update" on the search, noting "the CEO role at C.H. The Board is committed to conducting, and is underway on, an open and inclusive search to find our next CEO." Last year Reuters reported that Danish transport and logistics company DSV A/S (DSV.CO) was interested in buying C.H.

☆ A startup raised $79 million for its open smart-locker network. Check out the pitch deck it used to raise the funds.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Maybrit Martschin | Nathan Rennolds | Business Insider Deutschland | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Myflexbox is an Austrian startup that offers a smart-locker network. The company uses an open API to connect operating systems from different delivery providers. Insider has an exclusive copy of the pitch deck it used to raise 75 million euros. To help them achieve this, the founders recently secured 75 million euros, or about $79 million, in new funding. Insider has an exclusive copy of the pitch deck it used to raise the funds.

☆ Why Some Investors Are Still Waiting for Discounts on Corporate Bonds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Matt Grossman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

New bonds from corporate stalwarts such as United Parcel Service contributed to nearly $150 billion in high-grade sales last month. Corporate-debt yields are near decade-plus highs and the economy is humming. Some investors still think bonds from America’s blue-chip companies are a bad bet. Their caution stems from the relatively scant premium offered by corporate bonds relative to ultrasafe U.S. government debt, which is also paying some of its most generous yields of the past 15 years. The 5.7% yield on investment-grade corporate bonds—among the highest since 2009 in Intercontinental Exchange index data—looks less appealing next to yields above 5% on some Treasury debt, several investors said.

☆ Wells Fargo hikes its UPS price target, says delivery giant could see big earnings growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

United Parcel Service ' earnings growth potential is underappreciated by investors, Wells Fargo said. Analyst Allison Poliniak-Cusic reiterated the package delivery stock as overweight while raising her target share price to $221 from $195. "In 2024 not only should those investment headwinds fade, but they should generate incremental profit." And despite earnings growth largely being a 2024 story for the company, Poliniak-Cusic said the company could see upside earlier. But she also noted that productivity improve can generate downside support and create operating leverage, which can help accelerate profit growth in a period of recovery.

☆ These dependable dividend increasers are beating the market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

While recent dividend cuts may make investors concerned about what's to come next, there are still many stocks that have dependable dividend increases. Last week, Intel slashed its dividend by more than 65% , following VF Corp.'s dividend cut and Hanesbrands elimination of its dividend last month. The exchange operator has increased its payout four of the last five years and has a one-year dividend-per-share growth of 24.1%. United Parcel Service has the highest one-year dividend-per-share growth at 49% on our list. Finally, Target has a 2.7% dividend yield and has a one-year dividend-per-share growth of 22.5%.

☆ USPS Contracted Trucks Frequently Violate Safety Rules. Crashes Killed 79 People Since 2020.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Christopher Weaver | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

For years, the U.S. Postal Service has faced competition from the likes of United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. To fight them off, it hired outside trucking companies at cut-rate prices, required them to meet aggressive schedules and then looked the other way when they ran afoul of highway safety rules, a Wall Street Journal investigation found. The result has been deadly. Postal contractors have been involved in at least 68 fatal crashes that killed 79 people in the past three years, according to police crash and inspection records.

☆ TFI Stake in Trucker ArcBest Sparks Acquisition Speculation
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Liz Young | Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

TFI in 2021 became one of the top carriers in the U.S. less-than-truckload sector when it bought United Parcel Service Inc.’s freight business for $800 million. TFI CEO and President Alain Bédard said on the Feb. 6 earnings call that TFI is looking for opportunities to work with ArcBest. TFI executives said they see ways to save money working together with ArcBest, analysts at Cowen wrote in a Feb. 14 note summarizing a meeting they had with TFI management. The Cowen analysts wrote TFI is well placed to take over ArcBest’s unionized workforce because it already works with the Teamsters union at TForce Freight. ArcBest shares are up about 14% since TFI disclosed its stake.

☆ Generative AI Helping Boost Productivity of Some Software Developers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

The technology, known as generative AI, has been pioneered by OpenAI, the lab behind the ChatGPT writing system and the Dall-E visual illustration generator. Copilot, as well as other tools from Amazon.com Inc., International Business Machines Corp. , and startups like Tabnine Inc. and Magic AI Inc., have quickly found a receptive audience among developers seeking a productivity boost. The AI model behind Copilot is trained on data from GitHub, which houses a popular open-source community where developers contribute and share code. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. And, with a tightening economy in mind, Hyland Software is holding back on spending for any new tools or technologies.

☆ UPS's Coyote freight brokerage lays off workers as demand falls
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LOS ANGELES, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Coyote Logistics, United Parcel Service's (UPS.N) nonunion freight brokerage subsidiary, on Friday said it was laying off workers as rising interest rates, inflation and a resumption of pre-pandemic consumer spending patterns weaken demand for trucking services. A Feb. 16 report from transportation news provider FreightWaves said 200 jobs would be eliminated. That demand slowed when restaurant dining reopened, travel resumed and global economies started flashing recession warnings, and now those same companies are slashing jobs. UPS is also cut union jobs in its mainstay delivery service. Affected unionized workers with seniority have the option of leaving the company or taking a different role, which could mean that employees with less seniority lose their positions.

☆ UPS cutting back on some jobs as Teamster labor talks loom
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Lisa Baertlein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

With the move, UPS joins rival FedEx (FDX.N) and other major transportation companies in trimming jobs as the early pandemic's e-commerce shipping boom fizzles. But the stakes are higher at UPS, which is preparing for the largest North American private sector union contract negotiations later this year that will pit the world's largest package delivery firm against the powerful Teamsters union. The contract covering roughly 350,000 Teamsters-represented drivers, loaders, package sorters and other UPS workers expires on July 31. "This is not nationwide, but only in select parts of the country, in response to uneven demand," UPS said. According to the UPS labor contract, reassigned full-time workers could opt to leave or take another job.

☆ UPS and the Teamsters prepare for high-stakes talks with union contract set to expire
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

But Tomé's optimism comes as the Teamsters union, which represents more than 340,000 UPS workers, amps up pressure on the delivery giant. "Whether there is a strike of UPS workers is up to UPS," said Kara Deniz, a spokesperson for the Teamsters. The talks start in April, with the current national contract set to expire on July 31. In the fourth quarter of 2022, UPS workers delivered a global average of 28 million packages per day, according to the company's website. For the first time, Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien and the union's secretary of the treasury will have seats at the bargaining table and be directly involved in negotiating the terms of the new contract.

☆ FedEx to cut senior jobs as part of larger staff reduction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Lisa Baertlein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

FedEx did not say how many positions would be affected by the new layoffs. In mid-September, FedEx pulled its profit forecast and shares swooned more than 20% - the largest single-day drop in the company's 50-year history. But those numbers only tell part of the story because they exclude roughly FedEx 6,000 contractors and their workers, who handle most of the FedEx Ground's home delivery business. FedEx already has temporarily furloughed workers at its trucking division FedEx Freight as the pandemic-fueled e-commerce delivery bubble deflates and recession threatens, joining transportation-focused companies ranging from delivery upstart Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and trucking company C.H. Robinson Worldwide (CHRW.O) to freight broker Uber Freight and freight forwarding startup Flexport in announcing layoffs.

☆ Stocks firm, dollar on edge ahead of Fed decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Tom Westbrook | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Fed will announce its rate decision at 1900 GMT, followed by a news conference with Chair Jerome Powell half an hour later. Currency trade has been in a holding pattern ahead of the Fed and Bank of England and European Central Bank meetings that follow on Thursday. But the U.S. wages data wiped out some small dollar gains made earlier this week amid some nerves that the Fed sticks to its hawkish stance. United Parcel Service (UPS.N), the world's biggest package delivery firm, beat forecasts and shares rose 4.7%. Prices for dollar bonds in Adani Group companies were steadying in Asia trade on Wednesday after last week's rout.

☆ Jim Cramer's top 10 things to watch in the market Wednesday: Fed Day, AMD, Snap signal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Fed Day: The central bank is expected to raise the interest rates by a quarter-point to the range of 4.50% to 4.75%. UBS downgrades Snap (SNAP) to hold from buy with an unchanged price target of $10, and says business is really soft. Club stock Humana (HUM) topped earnings estimates Wednesday morning with revenue in line, great guide. In its quarterly report Wednesday, the exercise equipment said subscription revenue better than hardware sales, noted significant outperformance for connected fitness. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

REUTERS/Charles PlatiauCHICAGO/DETROIT, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The companies that produce goods at the heart of the U.S. consumer economy - SUVs, washing machines, heavy equipment and hamburgers - kept rolling along at the end of 2022. Bellwethers including McDonald's (MCD.N), General Motors, Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), appliance maker Whirlpool (WHR.N) and delivery giant United Parcel Service (UPS.N), posted results that exceeded estimates. That's a good sign for the broader economy, according to Lori Calvasina, equity analyst at RBC Capital Markets. The economy's performance may depend on whether price pressures that have afflicted consumer and business spending start to wane. "As we go into 2023, there is going to continue to be inflation," said Christopher Kempczinski, McDonald's CEO, on the company's earnings call Tuesday.

☆ UPS Prepares for Slowdown in Global Delivery Volumes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Esther Fung | Dean Seal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

United Parcel Service Inc. is girding its business against a slowdown in global delivery volumes as it advised that annual revenue could decline for the first time in years. The Atlanta-based delivery company said Tuesday that it expects revenue of between $97 billion and $99.4 billion in 2023, down from $100.3 billion last year.

☆ UPS Earnings Show Drop in Holiday Sales on Fewer Shipments
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Dean Seal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

United Parcel Service Inc. posted a decline in fourth-quarter revenue after delivering fewer items during the holidays and projected that its top line will fall in the current year amid a slowdown in global trade. The Atlanta-based delivery company said Tuesday that it expects revenue of between $97 billion and $99.4 billion in 2023, down from $100.3 billion last year. UPS last posted an annual sales decline in 2015, according to FactSet.

☆ UPS beats profit view on high-margin deliveries, boosts shareholder returns
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] A United Parcel Service (UPS) vehicle reverses into a facility in Queens, New York City, U.S., May 9, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File PhotoJan 31 (Reuters) - United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) on Tuesday beat expectations for quarterly adjusted profit, as it prioritized shipments of high-margin parcels and kept a tight lid on costs amid a softening e-commerce environment. UPS reported an adjusted profit of $3.62 per share for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, above Wall Street's expectations of $3.59 per share. UPS forecast 2023 full-year revenue between $97.0 billion and $99.4 billion, compared with analysts' expectations of $99.98 billion, as per Refinitiv data. Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles And Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: GM, McDonald's, UPS, Pulte, International Paper and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The company reported an adjusted $2.12 per share on $43.11 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were looking for $1.69 in earnings per share on $40.65 billion in revenue. Smith — Shares skyrocketed 13.7% after the manufacturing company reported earnings of $0.86 per share, beating consensus estimates. UPS also raised its dividend and sanctioned a new $5 billion stock repurchase plan. Pentair — Shares of Pentair surged 9.2% after the water treatment company reported earnings that topped Wall Street estimates for earnings and revenue.

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