Old Dominion Freight Line’s ODFL first-quarter 2025 earnings per share of $1.19 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.5% but dropped 11.2% year over year. Revenues of $1.37 billion topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.5% but decreased 5.8% year over year. A 6.3% decline in less-than-truckload (LTL) tons per day hurt results.

Revenues from LTL services came in at $1.36 billion, down 5.9% year over year. Revenues from LTL services were in line with our estimates. Revenues from other services rose 5.1% year over year to $14.02 million, which was below our projection of $14.5 million.

In the quarter under review, LTL weight per shipment dipped 1.4%, and LTL revenue per shipment inched up 0.7% year over year. LTL shipments and LTL shipments per day were down 6.5% and 5%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis. LTL revenue per hundredweight increased 2.2%.

Total operating expenses fell by 3.4% year over year to $1.04 billion. The operating income decreased 12.5% to $338.06 million.

Old Dominion exited the March-end quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $97.2 million compared with $581 million in the 2023 March-end quarter. Long-term debt at the end of the quarter was $40 million compared with $60 million at the end of the first quarter of 2025. Capital expenditures were $88.1 million.

The company paid out dividends worth $59.5 million and repurchased shares worth $201.1 million at the end of the first quarter of 2025. ODFL expects its aggregate capital expenditures for 2025 to total approximately $450 million, which is a reduction of $125 million from its initial projection, including planned expenditures of $210 million for real estate and service center expansion projects, $190 million for tractors and trailers, and $50 million for information technology and other assets.

We note that another major player from the Zacks Transportation-Truck industry, Landstar System LSTR, will report its first-quarter earnings numbers later this month. (See the Zacks Earnings Calendar to stay ahead of market-making news.)

Landstar System is scheduled to report first-quarter 2025 earnings on April 29. The company’s performance in the first quarter is expected to have suffered from weak freight demand, geopolitical uncertainty, tariff-related uncertainties and high inflationary pressure.

LSTR has outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in two of the last four quarters (missing the mark on the other two occasions). The average miss is 0.6%.

Zacks Rank of ODFL

Currently, ODFL carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Q1 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

United Airlines’ UAL first-quarter 2025 earnings per share (excluding 25 cents from non-recurring items) of 91 cents surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 75 cents. In the year-ago quarter, the Chicago-based airline reported a loss of 15 cents per share. 

Operating revenues of $13.21 billion fell marginally short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.22 billion. The top line increased 5.4% year over year despite the tariff-induced slowdown in domestic air travel demand. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 89.7% of the top line) rose 4.8% to $11.9 billion. The actual figure was short of our passenger revenue estimate of $12.5 billion. UAL flights transported 40,806 passengers in the first quarter, up 3.8% year over year.

Delta Air Lines DAL reported first-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 9 cents from non-recurring items) of 46 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 40 cents. Earnings increased 2.2% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

Revenues in the March-end quarter were $14.04 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $13.81 billion and increasing 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) rose 3.3% year over year to $13 billion.

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