CNR reported that higher labour costs were also a minor factor in decreased profits, and that cost pressure certainly won’t be helped by the looming railways workers’ strike.
Despite the slow quarter, CNR was quite confident that increased commodity demand and easing supply chain issues would lead to strong performance for the rest of 2024. Management backed up its bullish statements with a 7% dividend increase to 84.5 cents from 79 cents.
You can read more about CNR and CPKR in my article on Canada’s dividend kings at MillionDollarJourney.com.
Driving up share prices
All three big American car companies had positive earnings reports on Wednesday.
American auto earnings hightlights
All figures are in U.S. currency.
- Ford (F/NYSE): Earnings per share of $0.49 (versus $0.42 predicted). Revenue of $39.89 billion (versus $40.10 billion predicted).
- General Motors (GM/NYSE): Earnings per share of $2.62 (versus $2.15 predicted). Revenue of $43.01 billion (versus $41.92 billion predicted).
- Tesla (TSLA/NASDAQ): Earnings per share of $2.02 (versus $1.98 predicted). Revenue of $4.47 billion (versus $4.38 billion predicted).
Shares of Ford were up 2.39% on the day as its solid sales of trucks offset electric vehicle (EV) losses. The automaker expects to lose between $5 billion and $5.5 billion on EVs this year.
Revenue was hurt by a delay in sales of F-150 trucks. The delay was due to addressing quality issues. CEO Jim Farley stated that the company “avoided about 12 recalls” by correcting these issues before trucks went out the door.
Meanwhile, over at GM, shares increased about 6.5% on Monday after the company announced a substantial earnings and revenue beat. Like Ford, GM’s gains were mostly due to truck sales. Total revenues were up 7.6% year-over-year, and CEO Mary Barra stated in a letter to shareholders, “As we continue to strengthen our [internal combustion engine] portfolio, scale EVs and reinvest in the business, we are very focused on capital efficiency, enhancing profitability and free cash flow, and we will continue to take steps to create shareholder value.
Tesla shareholders might be excused for getting a bit car sick after so many stops and starts over the last couple of weeks. After news broke that Tesla would be laying off 14,000 employees (10% of its workforce) and that EV sales were down around the world, Tesla’s share price bottomed out at a 40% loss year to date. Then, in a charismatic earnings call on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk completely changed the stock’s momentum, made a few announcements, and suddenly the stock rocketed up more than 13% in after-hours trading.
