Reports highest revenue of any quarter in XPO’s history
Generates record first quarter net income and adjusted EBITDA
Significantly raises full year 2021 adjusted EBITDA guidance range to $1.825 billion to $1.875 billion
XPO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: XPO) today announced its financial results for the first quarter 2021. Revenue increased to $4.77 billion for the first quarter, compared with $3.86 billion for the same period in 2020. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $115 million for the first quarter, compared with $21 million for the same period in 2020. Operating income was $202 million for the first quarter, compared with $81 million for the same period in 2020. Diluted earnings per share was $1.02 for the first quarter, compared with $0.20 for the same period in 2020.
Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $164 million for the first quarter, compared with $71 million for the same period in 2020. Adjusted diluted earnings per share, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $1.46 for the first quarter, compared with $0.69 for the same period in 2020.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“adjusted EBITDA”), a non-GAAP financial measure, increased to $443 million for the first quarter, compared with $333 million for the same period in 2020.
For the first quarter 2021, the company generated $173 million of cash flow from operations and $69 million of free cash flow, a non-GAAP financial measure.
Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures used in this release are provided in the attached financial tables.
Raises 2021 Financial Targets
The company issued new full year guidance as follows:
- Adjusted EBITDA of $1.825 billion to $1.875 billion, compared with the prior guidance of $1.725 billion to $1.8 billion. The new range for adjusted EBITDA reflects a year-over-year increase in adjusted EBITDA of 31% to 35% from 2020, comprised of:
— 28% to 32% growth in adjusted EBITDA in the logistics segment; and
— 30% to 34% growth in adjusted EBITDA in the transportation segment. - Depreciation and amortization of $625 million to $645 million, excluding $145 million of acquisition-related amortization expense;
- Interest expense of $270 million to $280 million;
- Effective tax rate of 24% to 26%; and
- Adjusted diluted EPS of $5.90 to $6.50, up from the prior range of $5.10 to $5.85.
With respect to 2021 cash flows, the company issued the following targets:
- Gross capital expenditures of $650 million to $700 million, up from the prior range of $625 million to $675 million;
- Net capital expenditures of $500 million to $550 million, up from the prior range of $475 million to $525 million; and
- Free cash flow of $650 million to $725 million, up from the prior range of $600 million to $700 million.
The company’s 2021 guidance excludes impacts associated with the planned spin-off of the logistics segment; and assumes 113 million diluted shares outstanding.
CEO Comments
Brad Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer of XPO Logistics, said, “In the first quarter, we reported the highest revenue of any quarter in our history, appreciably outpacing a macro that’s recovering faster than expected. Our net income and adjusted EBITDA were both first quarter records, and we grew adjusted EPS by 112% year-over-year.
“Our truck brokerage business is continuing to outperform the market, powered by the growth of our XPO Connect digital platform. We increased our first quarter brokerage revenue by 83% year-over-year, and grew net revenue by 132%.
“In North American less-than-truckload, we improved our first quarter adjusted operating ratio, excluding real estate sales, by 220 basis points year-over-year to 84.3%. Our LTL business has strong momentum: our technology is expanding margin, and the recovery in the industrial economy is stimulating demand for our services.
“In logistics, our record first quarter revenue of $1.82 billion was propelled by the ‘big three’ logistics tailwinds: e-commerce, outsourcing and warehouse automation. We’ve won a tremendous amount of logistics business in the first four months of this year, including a $1.8 billion contract with a longstanding customer that extends and expands our relationship through 2032. This is the largest contract in our company’s history.”
Jacobs continued, “We now expect to grow our 2021 adjusted EBITDA by 31% to 35% year-over-year to a range of $1.825 billion to $1.875 billion, with strong contributions from both of our business segments.”
First Quarter 2021 Results by Segment
- Transportation: The company’s transportation segment generated revenue of $2.99 billion for the first quarter 2021, compared with $2.46 billion for the same period in 2020.
Operating income for the transportation segment was $209 million for the first quarter, compared with $120 million for the same period in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $343 million for the first quarter, compared with $253 million for the same period in 2020. The increases in operating income and adjusted EBITDA were related primarily to higher profitability in truck brokerage and in less-than-truckload (LTL).
In North American LTL, the first quarter operating ratio was 84.9% and the adjusted operating ratio was 82.6%. Excluding gains from sales of real estate, LTL adjusted operating ratio improved 220 basis points year-over-year to 84.3%.
In North American truck brokerage, revenue increased by 83% year-over-year to $589 million for the first quarter, compared with $321 million for the same period in 2020. Net revenue increased 132% year-over-year to $110 million for the quarter, compared with $47 million for the same period in 2020. - Logistics: The company’s logistics segment generated revenue of $1.82 billion for the first quarter 2021, compared with $1.44 billion for the same period in 2020. The year-over-year increase in segment revenue was primarily due to 13% organic revenue growth, the acquisition of contract logistics operations in the UK and Ireland, and a benefit from foreign currency conversion.
Logistics segment operating income was $68 million for the first quarter, compared with $38 million for the same period in 2020. Adjusted EBITDA was $155 million for the first quarter, compared with $121 million for the same period in 2020. The increases in operating income and adjusted EBITDA were primarily related to higher revenue from contracts won in prior periods. - Corporate: Corporate expense was $75 million for the first quarter 2021, compared with an expense of $77 million for the same period in 2020. Corporate adjusted EBITDA was an expense of $55 million for the first quarter, compared with an expense of $41 million for the same period in 2020.
Liquidity
As of March 31, 2021, the company had access to approximately $1.7 billion of total liquidity, including $629 million of cash and cash equivalents and approximately $1.1 billion of available borrowing capacity.
Progress on the GXO Spin-Off
The company is on track with its plan to spin off its logistics segment in the second half of 2021. To date, as previously announced, the company has:
- Unveiled the spin-off’s corporate name as GXO Logistics, Inc., its brand as GXO and its tagline as Logistics at full potential;
- Named eight executives to GXO leadership positions; all will transition to GXO from XPO once the spin-off is complete: Malcolm Wilson, chief executive officer; Baris Oran, chief financial officer; Mark Manduca, chief investment officer; Richard Cawston, president – Europe; Ashfaque Chowdhury, president – Americas and Asia Pacific; Bill Fraine, chief commercial officer; Sandeep Sakharkar, chief information officer; and Maryclaire Hammond, chief human resources officer; and
- Filed a confidential initial Form 10 registration statement for the spin-off with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March.
Completion of the spin-off is subject to various conditions, and there can be no assurance that the transaction will occur or, if it does occur, of its terms or timing.
Conference Call
The company will hold a conference call on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Participants can call toll-free (from US/Canada) 1-877-269-7756; international callers dial +1-201-689-7817. A live webcast of the conference will be available on the investor relations area of the company’s website, xpo.com/investors. The conference will be archived until June 4, 2021. To access the replay by phone, call toll-free (from US/Canada) 1-877-660-6853; international callers dial +1-201-612-7415. Use participant passcode 13718521.
About XPO Logistics
XPO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE: XPO) provides cutting-edge supply chain solutions to the most successful companies in the world. The company is the second largest contract logistics provider and the second largest freight broker globally, and a top three less-than-truckload provider in North America. XPO uses a highly integrated network of 1,621 locations in 30 countries to serve more than 50,000 customers. Approximately 140,000 team members, including 108,000 employees and 32,000 temporary workers, help XPO’s customers manage their supply chains most efficiently. The company’s corporate headquarters are in Greenwich, Conn., USA, and its European headquarters are in Lyon, France. Visit xpo.com for more information, and connect with XPO on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
As required by the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), we provide reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures contained in this press release to the most directly comparable measure under GAAP, which are set forth in the financial tables attached to this release.
XPO’s non-GAAP financial measures for the three ended March 31, 2021 and 2020 used in this release include: adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“adjusted EBITDA”) and adjusted EBITDA margin on a consolidated basis and for our transportation and logistics segments as well as adjusted EBITDA for corporate; free cash flow; adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders and adjusted earnings per share (basic and diluted) (“adjusted EPS”); net revenue and net revenue margin for our transportation segment, including net revenue for our North American truck brokerage business; adjusted operating income, adjusted operating ratio, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin for our North American less-than-truckload business; and organic revenue for our logistics segment.
We believe that the above adjusted financial measures facilitate analysis of our ongoing business operations because they exclude items that may not be reflective of, or are unrelated to, XPO and its business segments’ core operating performance, and may assist investors with comparisons to prior periods and assessing trends in our underlying businesses. Other companies may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently, and therefore our measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. These non-GAAP financial measures should only be used as supplemental measures of our operating performance.
Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders and adjusted EPS include adjustments for transaction and integration costs, as well as restructuring costs and other adjustments as set forth in the attached tables. Transaction and integration adjustments are generally incremental costs that result from an actual or planned acquisition, divestiture or spin-off and may include transaction costs, consulting fees, retention awards, and internal salaries and wages (to the extent the individuals are assigned full-time to integration and transformation activities) and certain costs related to integrating and converging IT systems. Restructuring costs primarily relate to severance costs associated with business optimization initiatives. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in making financial, operating and planning decisions and evaluating XPO’s and each business segment’s ongoing performance.
We believe that free cash flow is an important measure of our ability to repay maturing debt or fund other uses of capital that we believe will enhance stockholder value. We calculate free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities, less payment for purchases of property and equipment plus proceeds from sale of property and equipment. We believe that adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin improve comparability from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure (interest and financing expenses), asset base (depreciation and amortization), tax impacts and other adjustments as set out in the attached tables that management has determined are not reflective of core operating activities and thereby assist investors with assessing trends in our underlying businesses. We believe that adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders and adjusted EPS improve the comparability of our operating results from period to period by removing the impact of certain costs and gains that management has determined are not reflective of our core operating activities, including amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. We believe that net revenue and net revenue margin improve the comparability of our operating results from period to period by removing the cost of transportation and services, in particular the cost of fuel, incurred in the reporting period as set out in the attached tables. We believe that adjusted operating income and adjusted operating ratio for our North American less-than-truckload business improve the comparability of our operating results from period to period by (i) removing the impact of certain transaction and integration and restructuring costs, as well as amortization expenses and (ii) including the impact of pension income incurred in the reporting period as set out in the attached tables. We believe that organic revenue is an important measure because it excludes the impact of the following items: foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations and revenue generated by the logistics operations we recently acquired from Kuehne+Nagel in the UK.
With respect to our full year 2021 financial targets for adjusted EBITDA, adjusted diluted EPS and free cash flow, a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures is not available without unreasonable effort due to the variability and complexity of the reconciling items described above that we exclude from these non-GAAP target measures. The variability of these items may have a significant impact on our future GAAP financial results and, as a result, we are unable to prepare the forward-looking statement of income and statement of cash flows prepared in accordance with GAAP that would be required to produce such a reconciliation.
Forward-looking Statements
This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including our full year 2021 financial targets for adjusted EBITDA, depreciation and amortization (excluding acquisition-related amortization expense), interest expense, effective tax rate, adjusted diluted EPS, gross capital expenditures, net capital expenditures and free cash flow as well as our company’s planned spin-off of its logistics segment. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “should,” “will,” “expect,” “objective,” “projection,” “forecast,” “goal,” “guidance,” “outlook,” “effort,” “target,” “trajectory” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terms. However, the absence of these words does not mean that the statements are not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by us in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors we believe are appropriate in the circumstances.
These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to a material difference include the risks discussed in our filings with the SEC and the following: economic conditions generally; the severity, magnitude, duration and aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; our ability to align our investments in capital assets, including equipment, service centers and warehouses, to our customers’ demands; our ability to implement our cost and revenue initiatives; our ability to successfully integrate and realize anticipated synergies, cost savings and profit improvement opportunities with respect to acquired companies; matters related to our intellectual property rights; fluctuations in currency exchange rates; fuel price and fuel surcharge changes; natural disasters, terrorist attacks or similar incidents; risks and uncertainties regarding the potential timing and expected benefits of the proposed spin-off of our logistics segment, including final approval for the proposed spin-off and the risk that the spin-off may not be completed on the terms or timeline currently contemplated, if at all; the impact of the proposed spin-off on the size and business diversity of our company; the ability of the proposed spin-off to qualify for tax-free treatment for U.S. federal income tax purposes; our ability to develop and implement suitable information technology systems and prevent failures in or breaches of such systems; our substantial indebtedness; our ability to raise debt and equity capital; fluctuations in fixed and floating interest rates; our ability to maintain positive relationships with our network of third-party transportation providers; our ability to attract and retain qualified drivers; labor matters, including our ability to manage our subcontractors, and risks associated with labor disputes at our customers and efforts by labor organizations to organize our employees; litigation, including litigation related to alleged misclassification of independent contractors and securities class actions; risks associated with our self-insured claims; risks associated with defined benefit plans for our current and former employees; and governmental regulation, including trade compliance laws, as well as changes in international trade policies and tax regimes; governmental or political actions, including the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union; and competition and pricing pressures.
All forward-looking statements set forth in this release are qualified by these cautionary statements and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments anticipated by us will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to or effects on us or our business or operations. Forward-looking statements set forth in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, changes in expectations or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except to the extent required by law.
