Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Investopedia: FedEx Still Getting A Pass

Even after all these years, I find it interesting to see which stories analysts and investors are willing to believe in, even when the fundamentals don't always support that belief. I don't believe that anybody seriously questions that FedEx (NYSE:FDX) is a well-run business, or that it would be very (if not prohibitively) expensive to replicate the infrastructure that it and rival UPS (NYSE:UPS) have built.

By the same token, the company has had a hard time producing a truly impressive return on invested capital, and the company's free cash flow generation capabilities have always been limited--maintaining that network of planes, trucks and so on takes a lot of capital. Looking at the company's fiscal fourth quarter earnings, it looks like investors are willing to give the company another pass--margins and volumes were not that exceptional (nor was guidance), but the performance wasn't as bad as the results of other transportation and logistics companies might have suggested.

Please read more here:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/FedEx-Still-Getting-A-Pass-FDX-UPS-EXPD-UTIW0620.aspx

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