Yahoo Finance Copa Holdings (CPA) Q1 Earnings & Revenues Beat, Up Y/Y
Copa Holdings, S.A. CPA first-quarter 2024 earnings per share of $4.19 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.27 and improved 5% year over year. Revenues of $893.5 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $846.2 million and rose 3% year over year on the back of upbeat passenger revenues.
Passenger revenues (which contributed 96.1% to the top line) increased 3% from first-quarter 2023, owing to capacity increase. Cargo and mail revenues fell 5.8% to $21.91 million due to lower cargo yields. Other operating revenues were $12.83 million, up 28.4% year over year.
Operating margin improved 1.9 percentage points from the year-ago quarter, owing to a continued robust demand environment and CPA’s focus on maintaining low ex-fuel unit costs.
Copa Holdings, S.A. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Copa Holdings, S.A. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Copa Holdings, S.A. Quote
On a consolidated basis, Copa Holdings traffic (measured in revenue passenger miles) grew 7.1% year over year and capacity (measured in available seat miles) increased 8%. With traffic growth lagging capacity expansion, the load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) decreased 0.7 percentage points to 86% in the reported quarter.
Passenger revenue per available seat miles decreased 4.6% year over year to 12.1 cents. Additionally, revenue per available seat mile (RASM) declined 4.6% to 12.5 cents. Cost per available seat mile dipped 6.9%. Excluding fuel, the metric fell 2%. The average fuel price per gallon slipped 13.9% to $2.90.
Total operating expenses increased 0.5% year over year to $677.5 million, owing to higher capacity, offset by lower fuel, maintenance, materials and repairs costs, and sales and distribution costs. Expenses on wages, salaries and other employee benefits rose 11.4%. Sales and distribution costs decreased 9.6%. Passenger servicing costs grew 45.6%. Flight operation costs increased 13.1%.
Copa Holdings exited the first quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $170.52 million compared with $206.37 million at the fourth-quarter end. Total debt, including lease liabilities, was $1.7 billion, in line sequentially.
CPA ended the first quarter with a consolidated fleet of 106 aircraft, which comprises 67 Boeing 737-800s, 29 Boeing 737 MAX 9s, 9 Boeing 737-700s, and 1 Boeing 737-800 freighter.
2024 Outlook
CPA’s management expects consolidated capacity to grow 10% year over year. Management anticipates an operating margin of 21%-23%. The load factor is expected to be 87%. RASM is expected to be 12.0 cents. Non-fuel unit costs and fuel cost per gallon are anticipated to be 5.9 cents and $2.85 per gallon, respectively.
Currently, CPA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Q1 Performances of Some Transportation Companies
Delta Air LinesDAL reported first-quarter 2024 earnings (excluding 39 cents from non-recurring items) of 45 cents per share, which comfortably beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 36 cents. Earnings increased 80% on a year-over-year basis.
Revenues of $13.75 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12.84 billion and increased 7.75% on a year-over-year basis, driven by strong air-travel demand. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) came in at $12.56 billion, up 6% year over year. Delta Air expects adjusted earnings of $2.20-$2.50 per share for second-quarter 2024.
CSX Corporation's CSX first-quarter 2024 earnings per share of 46 cents beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. However, the bottom line declined 4% year over year.
Total revenues of $3.68 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.65 billion. Yet, the top line decreased 1% year over year due to lower fuel surcharge, a decline in other revenues, low trucking revenues and reduced export coal prices.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.UAL reported first-quarter 2024 loss per share (excluding 23 cents from non-recurring items) of 15 cents, which was narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 53 cents. In the year-ago reported quarter, UAL reported a loss of 63 cents per share.
Operating revenues of $12,539 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $12,428.4 million. The top line increased 9.7% year over year due to upbeat air-travel demand. This was driven by a 10.1% rise in passenger revenues (accounting for 90.2% of the top line) to $11,313 million. Almost 39,325 passengers traveled on UAL flights in the first quarter, up 6.8% year over year.
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