April 23 - Old Dominion Freight Line ODFL.O beat estimates for first-quarter profit on Wednesday as it relied on stronger pricing to partly make up for a steep drop in shipments.

Less-than-truckload $(LTL)$ revenue per hundredweight, a key performance indicator for freight companies, was up 4.1% for the quarter, excluding fuel surcharges.

"The decrease in our first quarter revenue was primarily due to a 6.3% decrease in LTL tons per day that was partially offset by an increase in LTL revenue per hundredweight," CEO Marty Freeman said in a statement.

A slump in freight volumes has continued into its third year, with no immediate signs of a market turnaround, prompting some industry experts to term it as a "freight recession."

Old Dominion's LTL business, in which shipments from multiple carriers are carried on the same truck, handled a total of 2.09 million tons in the first quarter, down 7.8% from a year earlier.

The carrier, which caters to sectors such as retail, manufacturing, automotive and healthcare, posted first-quarter revenue of $1.37 billion, roughly in line with Wall Street estimates, but down nearly 6% compared with a year earlier.

The company's operating ratio, a key metric indicating operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, rose 190 basis points to 75.4% from a year earlier.

A higher operating ratio reflects an increase in costs, suggesting lower profitability.

The Thomasville, North Carolina-based company's profit per share fell 11.2% to $1.19 per share, compared with analysts' estimates of $1.14, according to data compiled by LSEG.

(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar and Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Anil D'Silva)

((Abhinav.Parmar@thomsonreuters.com;))