2024-01-24 20:51:11 ET
Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (KNX)
Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call
January 24, 2024, 04:30 PM ET
Company Participants
Adam Miller - CFO and Treasurer
David Jackson - President and CEO
Conference Call Participants
Jack Atkins - Stephens
Ravi Shanker - Morgan Stanley
Nathan Ho - Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Bruce Chan - Stifel
Jordan Alliger - Goldman Sachs
Jason Seidl - TD Cowen
Jeff Kauffman - Vertical Research
Chris Wetherbee - Citigroup
Scott Group - Wolfe Research
Presentation
Operator
Good afternoon. My name is Ina, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Knight-Swift Transportation Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute, to prevent any background noise. [Operator Instructions] Speakers for today's call will be Dave Jackson, President and CEO; and Adam Miller, CFO. Mr. Miller, the meeting is now yours. Thank you.
Adam Miller
Thank you, Ina, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. Today, we plan to discuss topics related to the results for the quarter, an update on current market conditions and our earnings guidance. We have slides to accompany this call, which are posted on our investor website. Our call is scheduled to last one hour. And following our commentary, we will answer questions related to these topics. In order to get to as many participants as possible, we limit the questions to one per participant. And if you have a second question, please feel free to get back in the queue. We will answer as many questions as time allows. If you're not able to get to your question due to time restrictions, you may call (602) 606-6349.
So to begin, I'll first refer you to the disclosures on Slide 2 of the presentation and note the following. This conference call and presentation may contain forward-looking statements made by the company that involve risks, assumptions and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Investors are directed to the information contained in Item 1A Risk Factors or Part 1 of the company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the United States SEC for a discussion of the risks that may affect the company's future operating results. Actual results may differ.
Now I'll turn the call over to Dave Jackson for our overview on Slide 3.
David Jackson
Thank you, Adam, and good afternoon, good evening, everyone. The charts on Slide 3 compare our consolidated fourth quarter revenue and earnings results on a year-over-year basis. Market conditions in the LTL business were strong, while soft demand continues in the truckload space. Revenue, excluding fuel surcharge, increased 11.6%, while our adjusted operating income declined by 78.6%. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2023 was a loss of $0.07 and our adjusted EPS was $0.09 per share. These results include a $71.7 million operating loss in our third-party insurance business, we've decided to exit as we will discuss later on the call.
The insurance loss negatively impacted our adjusted EPS by $0.30. Excluding the loss on the insurance business, our adjusted EPS would have been $0.39 per share. Our results were also negatively impacted on a year-over-year basis by a $17.8 million increase in net interest expense, approximately $0.08 per share.
Now on to the next slide. Slide 4 illustrates the revenue and adjusted operating income for each of our segments. Truckload freight demand saw a modest seasonal lift in November before slowing more than anticipated in December. The seasonal lift in November was not enough to offset the productivity disruption we typically experience during the holidays. This was not only impacted -- this not only impacted our truckload business, but logistics and intermodal as well. ...
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Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (KNX) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript