C.H. Robinson Reports 2019 Fourth Quarter Results

C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (“C.H. Robinson”) (Nasdaq: CHRW) today reported financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Fourth Quarter Key Metrics:

• Total revenues decreased 8.3 percent to $3.8 billion
• Net revenues decreased 18.9 percent to $578.9 million
• Income from operations decreased 46.5 percent to $136.8 million
• Operating margin decreased 1,220 basis points to 23.6 percent
• Diluted earnings per share (EPS) decreased 45.5 percent to $0.73
• Cash flow from operations decreased 19.9 percent to $211.6 million

Full-Year Key Metrics:

• Total revenues decreased 7.9 percent to $15.3 billion
• Net revenues decreased 4.4 percent to $2.6 billion
• Income from operations decreased 13.4 percent to $790.0 million
• Operating margin decreased 320 basis points to 30.5 percent
• Diluted earnings per share (EPS) decreased 11.4 percent to $4.19
• Cash flow from operations increased 5.4 percent to $835.4 million

“Despite a quarter of challenging operating results, I do believe we took important steps in the quarter. Pricing adjustments to reflect the current market enabled us to deliver flat volume in NAST truckload, including a mid-single-digit increase in contractual volume, and 4.5 percent volume growth in LTL, healthy market share gains in a quarter where volumes as measured by the Cass Freight Index declined approximately 6 percent. We are starting to see our increased investments in technology drive operating efficiency in our business, including a 330-basis point favorable spread between truckload volume growth and headcount growth in our NAST business,” said Bob Biesterfeld, Chief Executive Officer of C.H. Robinson.

Biesterfeld continued, “While our fourth quarter financial results demonstrate that we are not immune to large cyclical swings in the freight environment, we firmly believe that our continued investments through cycles will drive the alignment between net revenue growth and operating costs needed to drive operating margin expansion through freight cycles over the long term.”

In a separate press release issued today, C.H. Robinson also announced the acquisition of Prime Distribution Services, a leading provider of retail consolidation services in North America. Biesterfeld added, “We are excited about the scale and value-added warehouse capabilities that Prime will bring to our retail consolidation platform. Prime has a strong leadership team that is experienced in retail consolidation and warehouse operations. We are thrilled to welcome the employees, customers and carriers of Prime to C.H. Robinson.”

Fourth Quarter Results Summary

• Total revenues decreased 8.3 percent to $3.8 billion, driven by lower pricing across most transportation service lines.
• Net revenues decreased 18.9 percent to $578.9 million, primarily driven by lower margin in truckload services.
• Operating expenses decreased 3.5 percent to $442.1 million. Personnel expenses decreased 11.9 percent to $299.0 million, driven primarily by declines in performance-based compensation, partially offset by a 1.9 percent increase in average headcount. Selling, general and administrative (“SG&A”) expenses increased 20.3 percent to $143.1 million. The largest contributors to the SG&A expense increase were increased technology spend and purchased services related to accelerating our growth and cost savings initiatives.
• Income from operations totaled $136.8 million, down 46.5 percent from last year due to declining net revenues and increased SG&A expenses. Operating margin of 23.6 percent declined 1,220 basis points.
• Interest and other expenses totaled $10.8 million, which primarily consists of interest expense. The fourth quarter also included a $0.9 million unfavorable impact from currency revaluation.
• The effective tax rate in the quarter was 21.4 percent compared to 23.9 percent last year. The lower effective tax rate was due primarily to one-time items resulting in a benefit of $3.2 million versus the prior year.
• Net income totaled $99.1 million, down 47.0 percent from a year ago. Diluted EPS of $0.73 decreased 45.5 percent.

Full-Year Results Summary

• Total revenues decreased 7.9 percent to $15.3 billion, driven by declines across most transportation service lines.
• Net revenues decreased 4.4 percent to $2.6 billion, primarily driven by lower margin in truckload services.
• Operating expenses increased 0.2 percent to $1.8 billion. Personnel expenses decreased 3.4 percent to $1.3 billion, driven primarily by declines in performance-based compensation, partially offset by a 2.3 percent increase in average headcount. SG&A expenses increased 10.7 percent to $497.8 million, due primarily to increases in purchased services, particularly commercial off-the-shelf software and occupancy, partially offset by a reduction in bad debt expense.
• Income from operations totaled $790.0 million, down 13.4 percent from last year due to declining net revenues and increased SG&A expenses. Operating margin of 30.5 percent decreased 320 basis points.
• Interest and other expenses totaled $47.7 million, which primarily consists of interest expense. The twelve-month period also included a $4.2 million unfavorable impact from currency revaluation.
• The effective tax rate for the full year was 22.3 percent compared to 24.5 percent in the year-ago period.
• Net income totaled $577.0 million, down 13.2 percent from a year ago. Diluted EPS of $4.19 decreased 11.4 percent.

North American Surface Transportation Results
Summarized financial results of our NAST segment are as follows (dollars in thousands):

Fourth quarter total revenues for C.H. Robinson's NAST segment totaled $2.8 billion, a decrease of 8.6 percent over the prior year, primarily driven by decreased pricing. NAST net revenues decreased 23.2 percent in the quarter to $390.6 million. Net revenues in truckload decreased 29.6 percent, less than truckload (“LTL”) net revenues decreased 3.4 percent, and intermodal net revenues decreased 3.1 percent versus the year-ago period. Excluding the impact of the change in fuel prices, average North America truckload rate per mile charged to customers decreased approximately 11 percent in the quarter, while truckload transportation cost per mile decreased approximately 7.5 percent. Truckload volume was flat in the quarter, as mid-single-digit growth in contractual volume was offset by significant declines in spot market opportunities in the current environment. LTL volumes grew 4.5 percent, and intermodal volumes declined 16 percent versus the prior year. Operating expenses decreased 6.6 percent due to decreased personnel expenses, partially offset by increased SG&A expenses. Income from operations decreased 43.3 percent to $130.5 million, and operating margin declined 1,180 basis points to 33.4 percent. NAST average headcount was down 3.3 percent in the quarter. As a reminder, fourth quarter and full-year NAST results include Robinson Fresh transportation, which was previously reported under the Robinson Fresh segment.

Global Forwarding Results
Summarized financial results of our Global Forwarding segment are as follows (dollars in thousands):

Fourth quarter total revenues for the Global Forwarding segment decreased 11.4 percent to $600.2 million, primarily driven by lower pricing and volumes in ocean and air. Net revenues decreased 9.6 percent in the quarter to $129.0 million, with the acquisition of The Space Cargo Group (“Space Cargo”) contributing 3 percentage points of net revenue growth in the quarter. Ocean net revenues decreased 10.6 percent driven primarily by lower pricing. Net revenues in air decreased 12.8 percent driven by declines in shipments and pricing. Customs net revenues decreased 3.5 percent, primarily driven by reduced transaction volume. Operating expenses increased 0.9 percent, driven by increased SG&A expenses. Fourth quarter average headcount increased 3.4 percent, with Space Cargo contributing 3.5 percentage points to the growth. Income from operations decreased 49.5 percent to $15.0 million, and operating margin declined 920 basis points to 11.7 percent in the quarter.

All Other and Corporate Results
Net revenues for Robinson Fresh, Managed Services and Other Surface Transportation are summarized as follows (dollars in thousands):

Fourth quarter Robinson Fresh net revenues decreased 15.2 percent to $22.9 million. Managed Services net revenues increased 5.2 percent in the quarter. Other Surface Transportation net revenues decreased 0.6 percent to $14.9 million, with the acquisition of Dema Service contributing 9 percentage points of net revenue growth.

Other Income Statement Items
The fourth quarter effective tax rate was 21.4 percent, down from 23.9 percent last year. The lower effective tax rate was due primarily to one-time items resulting in a benefit of $3.2 million versus the prior year. In the fourth quarter, we removed our assertion to indefinitely reinvest earnings of foreign subsidiaries. The resulting increase in income tax expense was almost entirely offset by foreign tax credits. We expect our 2020 full-year effective tax rate to be in the range of 22 to 24 percent.

Interest and other expenses totaled $10.8 million, which primarily consists of interest expense. Interest expense declined in the quarter driven by a reduction in our overall debt balance. The fourth quarter also included a $0.9 million unfavorable impact from currency revaluation.

Diluted weighted average shares outstanding in the quarter were down 1.8 percent due primarily to $67.4 million in share repurchases.

Cash Flow Generation and Capital Distribution
Cash from operations totaled $211.6 million in the fourth quarter, down 19.9 percent versus the prior year, primarily due to decreased earnings versus the year-ago period, partially offset by improved working capital performance.

In the fourth quarter, $137.3 million was returned to shareholders, with $69.9 million in cash dividends and $67.4 million in share repurchases. This represents a decrease of 18.5 percent over the prior year.

Capital expenditures totaled $19.5 million in the quarter. We expect full-year 2020 capital expenditures to be between $60 and $70 million, with the majority dedicated to technology.

Outlook
“With a continued focus on lowering our cost to serve and cost to sell, we expect to deliver $100 million in operating expense reduction across the enterprise over the next three years. These initiatives will leverage our technology investments to further optimize our office network and business operations while at the same time continuing to expand the benefits and services we offer to our customers and our carriers. And with nearly 10 million shares still outstanding on our share repurchase authorization, we will continue to opportunistically repurchase our shares to create value for our shareholders,” Biesterfeld stated. “Regardless of the freight environment, we remain firmly committed to leveraging our technology to deliver smarter solutions to our customers and our carriers. We are also firmly committed to the focus areas for our investors, including generating market share gains across all of our service lines, leveraging our technology investments to reduce our operating costs while continuing to deliver industry-leading levels of quality service, and delivering operating margin expansion over time.”

About C.H. Robinson
C.H. Robinson solves logistics problems for companies across the globe and across industries, from the simple to the most complex. With nearly $20 billion in freight under management and 18 million shipments annually, we are the world’s largest logistics platform. Our global suite of services accelerates trade to seamlessly deliver the products and goods that drive the world’s economy. With the combination of our multimodal transportation management system and expertise, we use our information advantage to deliver smarter solutions for our more than 119,000 customers and 78,000 contract carriers. Our technology is built by and for supply chain experts to bring faster, more meaningful improvements to our customers’ businesses. As a responsible global citizen, we are also proud to contribute millions of dollars to support causes that matter to our company, our Foundation and our employees. For more information, visit us at www.chrobinson.com (Nasdaq: CHRW).

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this release are forward-looking statements that represent our expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience or our present expectations, including, but not limited to, such factors such as changes in economic conditions, including uncertain consumer demand; changes in market demand and pressures on the pricing for our services; competition and growth rates within the third party logistics industry; freight levels and increasing costs and availability of truck capacity or alternative means of transporting freight; changes in relationships with existing contracted truck, rail, ocean, and air carriers; changes in our customer base due to possible consolidation among our customers; our ability to successfully integrate the operations of acquired companies with our historic operations; risks associated with litigation, including contingent auto liability and insurance coverage; risks associated with operations outside of the United States; risks associated with the potential impact of changes in government regulations; risks associated with the produce industry, including food safety and contamination issues; fuel price increases or decreases, or fuel shortages; cyber-security related risks; the impact of war on the economy; changes to our capital structure; risks related to the elimination of LIBOR; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in our Annual and Quarterly Reports.

Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and we undertake no obligation to update such statement to reflect events or circumstances arising after such date. All remarks made during our financial results conference call will be current at the time of the call, and we undertake no obligation to update the replay.

Conference Call Information:
C.H. Robinson Worldwide Fourth Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call
Wednesday, January 29, 2020; 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time
Presentation slides and a simultaneous live audio webcast of the conference call may be accessed through the Investor Relations link on C.H. Robinson’s website at www.chrobinson.com.
To participate in the conference call by telephone, please call ten minutes early by dialing: 877-269-7756
International callers dial +1-201-689-7817

We invite call participants to submit questions in advance of the conference call, and we will respond to as many of the questions as we can in the time allowed. To submit your question(s) in advance of the call, please email adrienne.brausen@chrobinson.com.

Summarized Financial Results
($ in thousands, except per share data)

This table of summary results presents our service line net revenues consistent with our historical presentation and is on an enterprise basis. The service line net revenues in the table differ from the service line net revenues discussed within the segments as our segments have revenues from multiple service lines.

Our total revenues represent the total dollar value of services and goods we sell to our customers. Net revenues are a non-GAAP financial measure calculated as total revenues less the cost of purchased transportation and related services and the cost of purchased products sourced for resale. We believe net revenues are a useful measure of our ability to source, add value, and sell services and products that are provided by third parties, and we consider net revenues to be our primary performance measurement. Accordingly, the discussion of our results of operations often focuses on the changes in our net revenues. The reconciliation of total revenues to net revenues is presented below (in thousands):

____________________________________________
(1) All cash and cash equivalents are included in All Other and Corporate.
(2) Amounts have been reclassified to reflect the segment reorganization announced in the first quarter of 2019.

____________________________________________
(1) All cash and cash equivalents are included in All Other and Corporate.
(2) Amounts have been reclassified to reflect the segment reorganization announced in the first quarter of 2019.

Source: C.H. Robinson
CHRW-IR

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