Expeditors Reports Third Quarter 2016 EPS of $0.59

SEATTLE, Nov. 08, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPD) today announced third quarter 2016 financial results including the following highlights compared to the same quarter of 2015:

• Diluted Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders per share (EPS¹) decreased 5% to $0.59
• Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders decreased 9% to $108 million
• Operating Income decreased 13% to $167 million
• Revenues decreased 5% to $1.6 billion
• Net Revenues² decreased 4% to $545 million
• Airfreight tonnage volume increased 7% and ocean container volume increased 3%

“We grew our business even as rates were rapidly adjusting to a very fluid marketplace and pressuring margins beyond what we would normally expect,” said Jeffrey S. Musser, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We've managed through similar cycles before and we know how to adapt. Typically, as in the most recent quarter, rates compress when volumes increase. In the year-ago third quarter, however, we grew volumes at the same time that our airfreight net revenue per ton was the highest in the company’s history. By comparison, in this most recent quarter of modest marketplace growth in volumes and a further slowdown in global trade, we shipped record volumes in both air and ocean. Not only did we move more freight this quarter, thanks to the hard work and dedication of our people, we continued to grow our business and gain market share in line with our strategic initiatives, which are focused on quality growth over the long term.”

Commenting further, Mr. Musser noted, “During the most recent third quarter, air carriers abruptly adjusted buy rates to align with spikes in demand, and ocean carriers modified pricing as the market endured a significant disruption with the bankruptcy of one of the world’s larger shipping companies. Because of those events, the current rate environment was more unpredictable than usual. While we always expect a certain level of rate volatility in our business, the current rate environment remains more volatile than it has been, prompting us to adapt accordingly.”

Bradley S. Powell, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, added, “Even with unpredictable pricing, our people continued to do what we do best at Expeditors, which is to relentlessly focus on driving incremental efficiencies in our processes. While we continue to invest in people and technology to execute our strategic initiatives, we maintained operating income as a percentage of net revenues - a key measure of operating efficiency - above 30%, a testament to our ability to control what we can control even during periods of unusual rate volatility.”

Expeditors is a global logistics company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company employs trained professionals in 186 full-service offices and numerous satellite locations located on six continents linked into a seamless worldwide network through an integrated information management system. Services include the consolidation or forwarding of air and ocean freight, customs brokerage, vendor consolidation, cargo insurance, time-definite transportation, order management, warehousing distribution and customized logistics solutions.

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¹ Diluted earnings attributable to shareholders per share.

² Non-GAAP measure calculated as revenues less directly related operating expenses attributable to the Company's principal services. See reconciliation on the last page of this release.

NOTE:  See Disclaimer on Forward-Looking Statements on the following page of this release.

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc.
Third Quarter 2016 Earnings Release, November 8, 2016
Financial Highlights for the Three and Nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015 (Unaudited)
(in 000's of US dollars except per share data)

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¹Non-GAAP measure calculated as revenues less directly related operating expenses attributable to the Company's principal services. See reconciliation on the last page of this release.

During the three and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2016 the Company repurchased 2.0 million and 5.4 million shares of common stock at an average price of $51.16 and $49.64 per share, respectively. During the three and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2015, the Company repurchased 4.3 million and 8.6 million shares of common stock at an average price of $48.58 and $48.10 per share, respectively.

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Investors may submit written questions via e-mail to: investor@expeditors.com. Questions received by the end of business on November 11, 2016 will be considered in management's 8-K “Responses to Selected Questions” expected to be filed on or about November 18, 2016.

Net Revenues (Non-GAAP measure)

We commonly refer to the term “net revenues” when commenting about our Company and the results of its operations. Net revenues are a Non-GAAP measure calculated as revenues less directly related operations expenses attributable to the Company's principal services. We believe that net revenues are a better measure than are total revenues when analyzing and discussing our effectiveness in managing our principal services since total revenues earned as a freight consolidator must consider the carriers' charges to us for carrying the shipment, whereas revenues earned in other capacities include primarily the commissions and fees earned by us. Net revenue is one of our primary operational and financial measures and demonstrates our ability to concentrate and leverage purchasing power through effective consolidation of shipments from customers utilizing a variety of transportation carriers and optimal routings. Using net revenues also provides a commonality for comparison among various services. The following table presents the calculation of net revenues.