UPS said it earned $970 million during the third quarter 2008, a 9.9% decline from profit of $1.08 billion a year ago.
The company’s revenue rose 7.4% to $13.11 billion, from $12.20 billion a year ago.
For the first nine months of the year, UPS has earned a profit of $2.75 billion, or $2.67 a share, compared to a profit of $3.02 billion, or $2.84 a share, a year earlier. Nine-month revenue rose to $38.8 billion, compared to $36.3 billion a year earlier
UPS reported diluted earnings per share of 96 cents for its third quarter. This represents an 8.6% decline from the $1.05 per share reported on an adjusted basis for the comparable 2007 quarter
“Based on economic forecasts, we anticipate a challenging environment for a number of quarters going forward,” said Kurt Kuehn, UPS’s CFO, in a statement. “We believe the US consumer will be very conservative with spending this year. But we still expect 2008 earnings per share should be toward the lower end of the $3.50-to-$3.70 range that we provided mid-year.”
For the three months ended September 30, consolidated revenue per piece increased 8.1% while package volume per day declined 2.6%. Operating profit declined 7% to $1.63 billion compared to adjusted operating profit last year.
The decline was 4.4% on an unadjusted basis. Operating results were positively impacted by productivity gains and benefits from the two-month lag in fuel surcharges, UPS said. These impacts were more than offset by economic deceleration and the high cost of fuel, which drove product mix changes, according to the company.
