Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (NYSE:EXPD) today announced fourth quarter 2023 financial results including the following highlights compared to the same quarter of 2022:

• Diluted Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders per share (EPS¹) decreased 21% to $1.09
• Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders decreased 28% to $159 million
• Operating Income decreased 40% to $199 million
• Revenues decreased 34% to $2.3 billion
• Airfreight tonnage volume decreased 3% and ocean container volume decreased 10%

“While ocean and air markets have been recovering from the massive disruptions brought on by the global Covid-19 pandemic, we continue to face further market uncertainty due to the current conflicts in the Middle East and on the Red Sea,” said Jeffrey S. Musser, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Further, volumes and capacity have remained uncertain due to additional capacity recently brought into the marketplace, while shippers have cautiously sought to avoid overextending their inventory levels. These factors created an environment where rates, which had fallen fairly significantly from the pandemic period, stabilized in ocean and, in the case of air, increased in the fourth quarter of 2023. If I had to use one key word to describe the fourth quarter and all of 2023, it would be ‘uncertainty.’

“As a company we have continued to remain focused on bringing expenses in line with revenue, as shown by headcount reductions. Compensation remains our second largest expenditure behind freight costs and is the area where we know we can have the largest impact from the standpoint of controlling expenses. We also know that there is more work that we can and will do to control expenses moving forward.

“We should again caution that our business is service-based, and we rely on highly skilled individuals to support our customers. History tells us that global trade operates in cycles and that we have periods when global volumes decline, as well as periods when global volumes grow. We’ve seen a year of declines in 2023, but we need to work hard to ensure that we have the right level of staffing to handle market increases and our expected growth in market share as we move forward. Managing expenses is an important role of any leadership team, but cutting expenses is only one part of effective management. Equally important is the expectation that management will grow the business. We remain committed to both.”

Bradley S. Powell, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, added, “Despite reducing headcount in each quarter of 2023 and bringing costs down both sequentially and year-over-year, expenses are still high when compared to our efficiency target and we are working to bring expenses down further. Even though compensation, our largest and most variable expense, is 20% lower than the same quarter a year ago, just about everything else is more expensive. We are not as efficient as we need to be for the current environment of excess capacity, weak demand, soft rates, and economic uncertainty. We continue to be focused on further aligning headcount and overhead expenses with lower levels of transactions and volumes. At the same time, we recognize the need to be prepared when tonnage and volumes eventually begin to trend upward in a rate environment that is less volatile.”

Mr. Powell noted that the Company generated $1.1 billion in cash flow from operations in 2023 and returned $1.6 billion to shareholders in share repurchases and dividends.

Expeditors is a global logistics company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The Company employs trained professionals in 176 district offices and numerous branch locations located on six continents linked into a seamless worldwide network through an integrated information management system. Services include the consolidation or forwarding of air and ocean freight, customs brokerage, vendor consolidation, cargo insurance, time-definite transportation, order management, warehousing and distribution and customized logistics solutions.

Disclaimer on Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained in this news release are “forward-looking statements,” based on management’s views with respect to future events and underlying assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding uncertainty in the ocean and air markets, including uncertainty due to conflicts in the Middle East and Red Sea; new capacity in the marketplace; cautious shipper demand and variable rate stability. Future financial performance could differ materially because of factors such as: our ability to reduce headcount and to control expenses and bring them in line with revenue; that volumes and tonnage will increase and that we will be able to grow in market share; that management is able to grow the business; that we are able to improve our efficiency; our ability to leverage the strength of our carrier relationships; the strength of our non-asset-based operating model; and our ability to remain a strong, healthy, unified and resilient organization. The normalizing of the supply chain at the end of the pandemic, along with the current uncertainty in the global economy, could have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, including, without limitation, those related to the success of our strategy and desire to maintain historical unitary profitability, our ability to attract and retain customers, our ability to manage costs, interruptions to our information technology systems, the ability of third-party providers to perform and potential litigation as updated by our reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These and other factors are discussed in the Company’s regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those in “Item 1A. Risk Factors” of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 and the Company’s most recent Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release speak only as of this date and the Company does not assume any obligation to update them except as required by law.

During the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2023, we repurchased 1.6 million and 12.1 million shares of common stock at an average price of $119.22 and $114.68 per share, respectively. During the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2022, we repurchased 5.0 million and 14.5 million shares of common stock at an average price of $112.76 and $108.88 per share, respectively. On February 19, 2024 the Board of Directors amended the Discretionary Stock Repurchase Plan to further authorize share repurchases down to 130 million shares of common stock. This authorization has no expiration date. In addition, during 2023 and 2022, we paid cash dividends of $1.38 and $1.34 per share, respectively.

Investors may submit written questions via e-mail to: investor@expeditors.com. Questions received by the end of business on February 23, 2024 will be considered in management's 8-K “Responses to Selected Questions.”

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