I wish J.B. Hunt (NASDAQ:JBHT) made things easier on me. When a company is investing in growth like this one is, it makes it more difficult to project cash flow and figure valuation. What's worse, it stopped slicing and dicing the numbers in such a way to let us see the impact of fuel surcharges on revenue.
Dig past that, though, and there are things to like about this trucker. Though the company did not ship all that many more loads, nor ship them that much farther, in its second-quarter earnings reported last week, revenue rose more than 10% on stronger pricing.
I wasn't quite so pleased on the operating front. Operating income was up just 3% and the operating ratio rose (higher is bad) from last year, principally with the higher cost of fuel. Now, not knowing what the company's fuel surcharges were like this quarter does make the analysis a bit more difficult, but surcharges often do lag rising fuel prices.
This is still clearly a growth environment for J.B. Hunt. Shippers want more dedicated capacity so that they're not at the mercy of spot rates from rails or truckers, and the company signed nine new deals and added 150 trucks to its dedicated operations. Investors may also recall that Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) has been a sizable "cornerstone" customer here. What's more, just like intermodal -- shipping involving more than one mode of transport, like trucks and railroads -- has been good for rail operators ranging from Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) to Canadian National (NYSE:CNI), it's certainly providing a boost here as well.
As is so often the case, though, I just wish these shares were cheaper. I still personally prefer Old Dominion (NASDAQ:ODFL) among truckers and I'll be covering that company's earnings later this week. All that said, these are still heady days for shippers, and barring a pronounced slowdown in the economy, I don't see them losing their grip on firm pricing policies that should keep profits moving in the right direction.
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
