Transport services provider Radiant Logistics (RLGT, Financial) reported a 55.7% surge in annual revenue Tuesday, despite missing Wall Street’s quarterly earnings expectations.
CEO Bohn Crain said Radiant suffered from the impacts of excess capacity and significant market pressures to deliver a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $600 thousand for the final quarter of its 2016 fiscal year – finishing with an EPS of just a penny. Analysts had originally anticipated earnings of four cents per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $5.4 million, versus $6.5 million twelve months ago.
Radiant’s net income shot up by a third to finish the quarter at $2.8 million.
Crain also attributed last quarter’s earnings miss on the loss of a major customer in the Hong Kong-based supply chain group On Time Express. Yet he was quick to point out in a conference call with investors on Tuesday that Radiant’s lackluster quarterly performance mirrored wider issues afflicting the transportation logistics industry.
“Obviously it has been a tough market for the sector,” he said. “Unfortunately we didn't escape it ourselves. I think it's a little early, I think everyone is optimistic and looking to call the bottom."
“I am hoping it’s stabilizing," Crain continued, "but I think it’s a little too early for us to draw those conclusions.”
Despite Radiant’s fourth quarter setback, the rapidly-rising transport company performed significantly better across the fiscal year as a whole.
Revenues for 2016 finished at $782.5 million, representing a huge 55.7% surge year-over-year. Adjusted net income rose 72.8% at $11.8 million, with adjusted EBITDA increasing 41.3% at $24.4 million. Normalizing those results to exclude a significant $2.4 million in one-off transitional costs associated with Service By Air’s back-office operations, adjusted EBITDA would have finished the fiscal year at $26.8 million.
More important still, Radiant’s cash from operations rose an estimated 900% to reach $21.4 million.
Net loss attributable to stockholders came in at $5.6 million, leading to annual earnings of 11 cents per basic share and ten cents per diluted share.
As a result of uncertain market conditions, Crain said the company was not yet prepared to offer any guidance for fiscal year 2017. Yet he did tell investors the business was poised to capitalize on continued industrial consolidation over the next two-to-three years.
“No one else has even attempted to do what we do and it takes - I can tell you it takes a fair amount of time and energy and focus to get an organization and its back office oriented to support kind of multiple brands and further consolidation,” he said. “And so I think we are uniquely positioned to be an active participant in those activities as they occur.”
Shares in Radiant dropped seven% after hours Tuesday.
Disclosure: I do not own shares in any of the companies mentioned within this article.
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