CNR reported that higher labor costs were also a minor think about the profit decline and that this definitely doesn’t improve cost pressures threatened strike by railway staff.
Despite the weak quarter, CNR was fairly confident that increased raw material demand and easing supply chain issues would result in strong performance for the rest of 2024. Management backed up its optimistic statements with a dividend increase of seven% from 79 cents to 84.5 cents.
You can read more about CNR and CPKR in my article Canada’s Dividend Kings at MillionDollarJourney.com.
Drives up stock prices
All three major American automobile corporations presented positive earnings reports on Wednesday.
US automobile earnings highlights
All numbers are in US currency.
- Ford (F/NYSE): Earnings per share of $0.49 (versus the anticipated $0.42). Revenue of $39.89 billion (vs. $40.10 billion forecast).
- General Motors (GM/NYSE): Earnings per share of $2.62 (versus $2.15 forecast). Revenue of $43.01 billion (vs. $41.92 billion forecast).
- Tesla (TSLA/NASDAQ): Earnings per share of $2.02 (versus $1.98 forecast). Revenue of $4.47 billion (vs. $4.38 billion forecast).
Shares of Ford rose 2.39% on the day as solid truck sales offset electric vehicle (EV) losses. The automaker expects to lose between $5 billion and $5.5 billion on electric vehicles this 12 months.
Sales were hurt by a delay in F-150 truck sales. The delay was as a result of the resolution of quality issues. CEO Jim Farley said the corporate “avoided approximately 12 recalls” by fixing these issues before the trucks were delivered.
Meanwhile, shares of GM rose about 6.5% on Monday after the corporate reported a big increase in profit and sales. Like Ford, GM’s profits got here primarily from truck sales. Total revenue increased 7.6% year-over-year, and CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to shareholders: “As we proceed to strengthen our operations [internal combustion engine] We are strongly focused on capital efficiency, increasing profitability and free money flow to enhance our portfolio, scale EVs and reinvest within the business, and we are going to proceed to take steps to create shareholder value.
Tesla shareholders may very well be forgiven for getting slightly automotive sick after so many stops and starts in recent weeks. After it was announced that Tesla could be laid off 14,000 Employees (10% of the workforce) and electric vehicle sales declined worldwide, Tesla’s stock price bottomed out at a lack of 40% 12 months up to now. Then, in a charismatic conference call on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk completely modified the stock’s momentum, made a couple of announcements, and suddenly the stock shot up greater than 13% in after-hours trading.
