Kansas City Southern Q1 Profit Top Estimates

(RTTNews) - Freight rail transportation company Kansas City Southern (KSU), reported a first quarter profit of $94 million or $0.85 per share, down from $104 million or $0.94 per share in the same quarter last year.

Excluding items of lease termination costs, foreign exchange rate fluctuations and debt retirement costs, adjusted earnings for first quarter increased 18 percent to $1.05 per share from $0.89 per share a year ago. On average, twenty analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.99 per share for the quarter. Analysts estimate typically exclude one-time items.

Kansas City Southern's first quarter revenues rose 10 percent to $607.4 million from $552.8 million in the corresponding quarter last year, helped mainly by a 4 percent increase in carload volumes. Fourteen analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $598.80 million for the quarter.

Adjusted operating income was $190 million, a 17 percent increase when compared to $163 million recorded a year ago. First quarter adjusted operating ratio was 68.7 percent, a 1.8 point improvement from last year.

Kansas City Southern's President and Chief Executive Officer David L. Starling, observed, "While it is still early in the second quarter, KCS business levels have improved in April. The indication that our core business appears to be gaining strength provides us with positive momentum towards achieving the 2014 goals we outlined to investors in January."

KSU closed Wednesday's regular trade at $101.44, up $2.28 or 2.30%, on a volume of 1.24 million shares on the NYSE. In after-hours, the stock slipped $0.20 or 0.20% to trade at $101.24.