FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) is scheduled to release its fiscal second-quarter financial results after the markets close on Tuesday. The consensus estimates are calling for $2.78 in earnings per share (EPS) and $17.58 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $4.03 in EPS and $17.82 billion in revenue.
According to experts and investors, FedEx has fallen behind Amazon and UPS in the delivery wars. FedEx ended its ground shipping deal with Amazon in June, and its most recent earnings reflect this. In fact, FedEx’s earnings report resulted in the company’s worst day since the financial crisis. It also faces a more aggressive U.S. Postal Service. The shipping industry has become much more crowded, largely because of Amazon. FedEx is being handicapped as the loser.
In an effort to combat this Amazon fallout, FedEx partnered with Walgreens in October to allow customers to drop off returns at thousands of Walgreens across the United States.
These Walgreens locations are implementing FedEx Returns Technology. The rollout began in early November, before the peak holiday season. One new feature of this service will let customers print their return shipping label in a store. Also, any e-tailer using the FedEx Returns Technology platform can send its customer a return code via email that can be taken to a participating Walgreens location. From there, a store associate will print a return label in-store, eliminating the need for the customer to print a label at home and the need for merchants to print and include a return label in every package.
Excluding Tuesday’s move, FedEx had underperformed the broad markets, with its stock up nearly 2% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was actually down about 11%.
A few analysts weighed in on FedEx ahead of the report:
- Morgan Stanley rates it as Equal Weight with a $111 price target.
- UBS has a Neutral rating with a $161 target price.
- Wells Fargo has an Outperform rating and a $189 price target.
- Berenberg Bank’s Hold rating comes with a $155 target price.
- Sanford Bernstein has a Market Perform rating and a $153 price target.
- JPMorgan has a Neutral rating with a $140 price target.
Shares of FedEx were last seen down less than 1% at $163.01, in a 52-week range of $137.78 to $199.32. The consensus price target is $172.19.
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