Package delivery giant and US economic bellwether FedEx Corp reported better- than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday, helped by a pickup in international freight volumes and cost controls. The company reported a profit of $181 million, or 58 cents a share, for the first quarter ended on August 31, down 53 percent from $384 million, or $1.23 a share, a year earlier.
Revenue fell 20 percent to $8.01 billion. The financials were better than Wall Street had expected for much of the past quarter - but were not a surprise. Last week, the Memphis, Tennessee-based company pre-announced its results, saying it would report first-quarter earnings of 58 cents a share and second-quarter earnings in a range of 65 cents to 95 cents - an outlook it reiterated on Thursday. At the time of the pre-announcement, analysts had expected FedEx to report earnings of 43 cents a share for the first quarter and 70 cents for the second quarter. FedEx shares fell to less than 1 percent to $77.70 in trading before the market opened.