First look: RXO earnings

Company projects greater-than-expected synergies from Coyote acquisition; operating data mostly softer

First look at RXO's fourth quarter 2024 earnings. (Photo: Jim Allen\FreightWaves)

RXO said in its earnings release for the fourth quarter that integration of Coyote Logistics was ahead of schedule. It now expects to realize “at least” $50 million in synergies. In its third-quarter earnings, RXO had said it expected synergies of $40 million.

The earnings release focused on various growth areas, not surprising given that financial and several operating results were weak. Clear sequential and year-to-year comparisons are difficult to generate, because the fourth-quarter numbers include revenue from Coyote.

The combined legacy RXO brokerage business and Coyote grew sequential volumes by 10% in the quarter. But combined volume was down 6% year over year. LTL volume was up by 1%. But full truckload volume was down 8%.

The Managed Transportation division has a sales pipeline of close to $2 billion in freight under management. Last Mile stops were up by 15% year on year.

Adjusted EBITDA was $42 million in the quarter, up from $31 million a year ago. But that’s not going to repeat: The company said it expected first-quarter EBITDA to be between $20 million and $30 million.

The bottom line was down from a year ago, posting a loss of 12 cents per share compared to 2 cents per share a year ago. Third-quarter net income was a loss of $1.81, but that was heavily impacted by various restructuring costs including those related to the Coyote acquisition. The fourth-quarter figure also was hit by restructuring costs of $34 million, but it was $248 million in the third quarter. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $10 million, compared to $7 million a year ago and in the third quarter sequentially. 

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.