Earnings Watch: Daseke Posts $8.6 Million Loss, Radiant Logistics Sees Small Profit
Flatbed carrier group Daseke Inc. has released its first earnings report since becoming a publicly traded company earlier this year. It shows that losses moved higher, but the company’s expectations remain high.
The Texas-based operation had a first quarter loss of $8.6 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.5 million, or 12 cents per share a year earlier. When first quarter 2017 net loss is compared to the fourth quarter of 2016, it declined 28%.
The results include $1.6 million, or 6 cents per share, of transaction costs related to the February merger of Daseke with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. II, according to the company, as well as $3.9 million, or 14 cents per share, of non-cash interest expenses related to the write-off of capitalized loan fees from prior senior loans.
Revenue in the first quarter totaled $160.4 million, 2.3% higher than the same time a year earlier, and improved 6.7% over 2016 fourth quarter revenue at the Texas company.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), was $17.6 million for the 2017 first quarter, compared with $22.7 million for the year-ago period. While Adjusted EBITDA declined 22.7% year over year, it improved 14.6% over fourth quarter 2016 Adjusted EBITDA of $15.3 million.
Stifel Transportation & Logistics Research Group said that the first quarter EBITDA was better than its expectation of $16 million. “This beat, especially given the uncertainty surrounding the first earnings release and various one-time items, tracks favorably with our expectations.”
“As anticipated, we saw sequential improvement in our first quarter 2017 results versus the fourth quarter of 2016, with improvements in miles, revenue, net loss and Adjusted EBITDA, which we believe presents an accurate snapshot of our performance trend and growth,” said Don Daseke, chairman, president and CEO. “We believe rates during the 2016 …Read the rest of this story
