Greenwich regional railroad operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc. said Thursday that its second-quarter net income rose 17 percent on higher freight revenue despite a decline in traffic, The Associated Press reports.
Shares rose 4 percent in midday trading.
G&W, which announced a plan in July to buy fellow regional railroad operator RailAmerica for about $1.39 billion in cash, reported net income of $36.4 million, or 84 cents per share in the second quarter. That compares with $31.1 million, or 73 cents per share, a year ago.
The most recent quarter included one-time items that boosted earnings by 16 cents per share. If the one-time impact were excluded, the company would have earned 68 cents per share. That matched the estimate of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Wall Street analysts usually exclude one-time items from their estimates.
Revenue rose 4 percent to $217.4 million. Analysts expected revenue of $218.4 million.
Genesee’s traffic in the second quarter fell 7 percent, mostly due to lower shipments of coal. Same-railroad freight revenue, which excludes new business, rose 10.2 percent, driven mostly by shifts in the types of goods it ships and higher fuel surcharges.
Genesee & Wyoming owns and operates short line and regional freight railroads in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Its shares rose $2.36, or 4 percent, to $63.10 in midday trading. They are 5.6 percent below their 52-week high of $66.83 in early February.
