=Werner Enterprises (WERN) reported earnings on Thur 19 Oct 2017 (a/h)

Werner Enterprises misses by $0.01, reports revs in-line

• Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.31 per share, $0.01 worse thanthe Capital IQ Consensus of $0.32; revenues rose 3.9% year/year to $528.64 mln vs the $532.48 mln Capital IQ Consensus.
• "Third quarter 2017 freight demand in our One-Way Truckload fleet improved throughout the quarter. In July and August 2017, freight trended better than normal and meaningfully better than the challenging freight market of third quarter 2016. As we moved into September, the freight market strengthened further due in part to the significant disruption caused by two major hurricanes in south Texas and Florida. These catastrophic weather events resulted in short-term costs in September due to out-of-route miles, higher fuel costs, equipment issues, and driver domicile issues; additionally, the multiple days of school closings at our Florida-based driving schools negatively impacted our driver hiring. At the same time, these events improved spot market pricing and further widened the positive gap between demand and capacity, which better positions the freight and contractual rate markets going forward. Freight volumes thus far in October 2017 have been seasonally better than normal."
• Average revenues per tractor per week increased 2.9% in third quarter 2017 compared to third quarter 2016 due to a 3.4% increase in average revenues per total mile and a 0.5% decrease in average miles per truck.
• Freight metrics have improved, and the co says it has increasing confidence that contractual rates will strengthen over the next few quarters, particularly noting the improving freight market conditions and the expected tightening of supply when the electronic hours of service mandate for the trucking industry becomes effective on December 18, 2017.