CNF Reports Improved Third-Quarter Earnings

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ransportation firm CNF Inc. reported third-quarter net income of $66 million or $1.18 a share, compared with a net loss in the same quarter last year of $216.2 million or $3.90 a year earlier.

Last year’s figures included impairment charges of the company’s sale of its Menlo Worldwide Forwarding unit to UPS Inc. in December 2004.

CNF’s revenue rose 13% to $1.1 billion from the previous third quarter.

The company’s earnings exceeded its third-quarter guidance of $1 to $1.08 a share, which it had reiterated in September. CNF’s fourth-quarter earnings will be between 93 cents and $1.01 a share, it said in a statement.

Operating income at CNF’s Con-Way Transportation Services unit, which operates a number of less-than-truckload carriers, rose 34% to $94.4 million from a year earlier. Con-Way’s revenue rose 11% to $741.4 million.

CNF’s Menlo Worldwide logistics unit, which includes Menlo Logistics and Vector SCM, saw its operating income increase 44% to $12.1 million, the company said.

The company’s other operations, including the results of Road Systems trailer manufacturing and corporate activities, reported an operating loss of $2.6 million, mostly due to an insurance settlement, compared with an operating loss of $635,000 in the previous third quarter.

NF is ranked No. 6 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian trucking companies.