(Reuters circulated the following article on July 24.)
NEW YORK — CSX Corp, the biggest railroad in the eastern United States, on Thursday posted a drop in quarterly earnings amid sluggish economic growth and higher labor costs, but the results beat expectations and the shares rose.
The Jacksonville, Florida, cargo hauler said second-quarter profit was $127 million, or 59 cents a share. A year earlier, CSX had profit of $135 million, or 63 cent a share.
Wall Street had expected profit between 55 cents and 67 cents a share, according to 12 analysts polled by Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc. A consensus forecast among the analysts was 58 cents a share.
Shares of CSX rose 51 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $31.74 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange (News – Websites).
Revenue at the company’s surface transportation unit, which includes CSX’s rail and intermodal units, was $1.89 billion, up from $1.83 billion in the second quarter of 2002. Surface transportation income was $259 million compared to $293 million in the prior-year period.
“Despite a continued sluggish economy, our modal conversion efforts produced solid gains in the forest products, metals, waste and intermodal markets,” Michael Ward, CSX chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “In addition, coal rebounded in the quarter and showed solid year-over-year improvement.”
On a consolidated basis, revenues were $1.94 billion vs. $2.07 billion a year ago.