USA Truck (USAK) Tops Q3 EPS by 5c, Revenues Miss

USA Truck (NASDAQ: USAK) reported Q3 EPS of $0.43, $0.05 better than the analyst estimate of $0.38. Revenue for the quarter came in at $132.6 million versus the consensus estimate of $137.65 million.

President and CEO James Reed commented, “I am proud of the entire team here at USA Truck and our ability to deliver continued year-over-year improvement in operating revenue and operating income. This quarter represents our fifth consecutive quarter of consolidated profitability, and demonstrates progress on our turnaround initiative. Our Trucking segment’s most critical metric, base revenue per available tractor per week, improved year-over-year by $408, or 13.6%. We achieved this despite periods of high unseated truck count, related to OEM delivery issues and a challenging driver recruitment environment during the quarter. In response to this challenging driver market, we increased driver pay in targeted regions and reengineered our driver pay packages to ensure USA Truck remains an employer of choice for professional drivers. We continue to focus on seating tractors and driving continued year-over-year improvement in base revenue per available tractor per week, through strategic network design and operational efficiencies. Our USAT Logistics segment also generated year-over-year increases in revenue and operating income, as well as a 9.4% improvement in gross margin in the third quarter. This led to USAT Logistics’ best quarterly operating ratio percentage in the last four quarters.

Last week we announced the acquisition of Davis Transfer Company of Carnesville, GA. This acquisition added approximately 250 tractors to the fleet and a robust operational network in the southeast United States which complements our existing footprint. This opportunity adds capacity and density to our network, while also bolstering strategic customer relationships, which we believe will further complement our network. We expect Davis to be immediately accretive to earnings.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on USA Truck (USAK) click here.

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