Financials

J.B. Hunt Weathers The Storm

J.B. Hunt Transport management had a steady hand at the wheel during a stormy first quarter for the freight market

Despite ongoing rate pressure and rising costs, operating margins didn't drop significantly YoY. Company-wide there was less than a 1% loss in margin. The ICS brokerage division trimmed losses significantly from 2024 and Truckload eked out a small margin gain. Intermodal and Dedicated had small changes. Final Mile was the biggest loser, dropping over three percentage points.
Top line revenue was slightly down, largely due to the $30 million drop in fuel surcharge revenue. When fuel revenue is taken out, revenue was actually up $7.2 million.
The lower margins led to an 8.8% drop in operating income. Total operating expenses were trimmed just 0.25% - not enough to offset the $23 million loss in total revenue.
The negative growth had impact on the company's balance sheet. Debt-to-equity ratio moved from 1.06 to 1.35. Cash position at the end of the quarter dropped 32.4% to $43.4 million and current assets dropped 14.3% to $1.67 billion.