Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL) reported Q4 EPS of $0.83, $0.03 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.86. Revenue for the quarter came in at $745.74 million versus the consensus estimate of $739.36 million.

"Old Dominion's fourth-quarter financial results reflect a number of encouraging developments, despite a 2.4% decrease in earnings per diluted share,” said David S. Congdon, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Old Dominion. “In a quarter with one less business day than the comparable prior-year period, our revenue per day increased 3.2%, which was driven by a 0.3% increase in LTL tons per day and a 2.6% increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight. Our LTL revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharges, increased 1.6%, as our yield metrics were negatively impacted by a 2.5% increase in LTL weight per shipment and a 0.5% decrease in average length of haul. Our pricing philosophy remains the same, however, and we continue to characterize the pricing environment as stable.

“We continued to operate very efficiently during the fourth quarter while also providing outstanding on-time and claims-free service, reflected by our over 99% on-time delivery and less than 0.3% cargo claims ratio. Our variable operating costs for the fourth quarter of 2016 improved as a percent of revenue, but our operating ratio was impacted by the expected increase in depreciation and a $7.7 million, or 7.5%, increase in our fringe benefit costs as compared to the fourth quarter of 2015. This increase in fringe benefit costs was primarily due to an increase in certain benefit plan costs that were directly linked to the increase in our stock price during the fourth quarter. The operating ratio increased 30 basis points to 84.8% in the fourth quarter of 2016 from 84.5% in the comparable period last year.”

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