YRC Worldwide Inc. on Thursday lowered its earnings forecast for the fourth quarter by about 30 percent, citing lower freight volumes caused by a slow economy.
In a release, the Overland Park-based trucking company (Nasdaq: YRCW) said it now expects fourth quarter earnings of 95 cents to $1.05 a share, compared with its previous forecast of $1.40 to $1.50 a share.
"As widely reported by industry analysts, the economy has slowed significantly in the fourth quarter, resulting in lower volumes than we anticipated across all of our asset-based business units," YRC President and CEO Bill Zollars said in the release.
Eleven analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call reported a consensus earnings estimate of $1.32 a share for the fourth quarter, which ends in December.
The company also lowered its fiscal 2006 earnings estimate to between $5 and $5.10 a share, compared with its previous estimate of $5.45 to $5.55 a share.
Ten analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call reported a consensus earnings estimate of $5.40 a share for fiscal 2006.
The lower forecasts follow analysts recent downgrade of trucking companies across the board. Analysts with Deutsche Securities, Stifel Nicolaus and BB&T Capital Markets all downgraded YRC Worldwide to "hold" from "buy." A Robert W. Baird analyst downgraded the company to "neutral" from "outperform."
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