One-time charge hurts FedEx

Article Excerpt

FEDEX CORP. $89 (New York symbol FDX; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 315.7 million; Market cap: $28.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSI Network Rating: Average; www.fedex.com) earned $231 million, or $0.73 a share, in the three months ended February 28, 2011. That’s down 3.3% from $239 million, or $0.76 a share, a year earlier. The decline was mainly due to $43 million in one-time costs to merge its FedEx Freight and FedEx National LTL (less than truckload) divisions into a single business unit. Bad winter weather in the U.S. also increased its aircraft-maintenance costs. Revenue rose 11.0%, to $9.7 billion from $8.7 billion, as the improving economy continues to spur demand for delivery services. FedEx is a buy. buy…