(The Associated Press circulated the following story on January 28.)
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Corp. reported Tuesday that its fourth-quarter earnings fell about 10 percent, mainly on a restructuring charge stemming from the planned firing of up to 1,000 managers.
In the three months ended Dec. 26, the railroad and transportation company posted earnings of $123 million, or 57 cents per share, compared to $137 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding the restructuring charge, earnings were $130 million, or 61 cents per share. That beat the average estimate of analysts by a penny per share, according to Thomson First Call.
Revenues for the quarter were $1.95 billion, down from $2.06 billion a year earlier. The prior year included revenue of $189 million from an affiliated company that CSX no longer owns.
CSX said in November that the layoffs will cost $60 million to $80 million, which would be charged over six months.
Chairman and chief executive Michael J. Ward said that revenues for the company’s core surface transportation units were strengthening on a recovering economy.
“However, because these positive trends were offset by continued high operational costs, we remain keenly focused on improving our cost structure and restoring our higher service levels that we’ve seen in the recent past,” Ward said.
For the full year, CSX reported earnings of $246 million, or $1.14 a share, on revenues of $7.79 billion. That compared to earnings of $424 million, or $1.99 a share, on revenues of $8.15 billion in 2002.
CSX, based in Jacksonville, owns one of the largest rail networks in the United States.