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Earnings Calls: 
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Fourth Quarter Earnings Call
Author: Rozalina Destanova
123jump.com
Last Update: 2:24 PM EST January 31 2008


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Revenue rose to $4.25 billion from $3.88 billion a year ago. The increase in revenue came despite a falling number of carloads on network, which is evidence of strong pricing. Fuel costs jumped to $960 million from $703 million a year earlier. Total carloads reached 2.6 million, down from 2.677 million in the same period in 2006. The company plans capital expenditures of $2.45 billion in 2008, down from the $2.59 billion it spent in 2007.


Investors Question and Answers

 
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Sequential Earnings Growth | Quarterly Earnings by Year | Quarterly Earnings Growth by Year

Source: Company filings    Q1:March  Q2:June  Q3:September  Q4:December
 
Edward Wolfe (Bear Stearns): Do you have the ability if the demand is there to utilize that?

Matthew K. Rose: Yes we have the capacity to grow or export grain capabilities.

Edward Wolfe (Bear Stearns): The UTU just announced that they settled with the railroads tentatively and they have also talked about now instead of opposing tax credits supporting them. Have you heard anything about the potential to try to tuck something in for tax credits into Bush''s stimulus plan?

Matthew K. Rose: We are participating in and working with people, but right now there is lot of moving parts to it, whether or not its how much business tax stimulus will be in there. What we have seen so far is that it is generally around more accelerated depreciation on a shorter term period. Right now we are not hopeful that the investment tax credit itself can get in, but they are trying about a second bill and your guess is good as mine, whether or not that will actually happen.

Edward Wolfe (Bear Stearns): Is it your sense with the UTU changing their position that there is a real chance over the next 12 months to get something in the form of infrastructure passed or does it still feel like an election year, a long shot?

Matthew K. Rose: It is a long process of what we are going to have to go through.

Ken Hoexter (Merrill Lynch): The gross ton miles for employees used to be s around 4% to 5 % annually, now it looks to be about 0.5%. Is there any thing that you are targeting or can get that back up to that mid single-digit efficiency improvement levels?

Carl R. Ice: We do not expect to be that high this year.

Matthew K. Rose: We were 1.5% this year.

Carl R. Ice: GTM is up about two and we were down above one and the employees were met so there were normal levels in there, about 1.5. I do not think it will be at four or five, but we expect to different in 2008 is that we will not have the follow-up as we did earlier in 2007 when we caught up. We should show improvement every quarter and something similar year-over-year.

Ken Hoexter (Merrill Lynch): Do you see continued headcount reduction if volumes remain at flat levels?

Matthew K. Rose: Yes, I always adjust our workforce to what our volume is; we would expect that to happen. It depends on how gross ton miles move in relation to the volume.

Ken Hoexter (Merrill Lynch): Most of the major contracts are wrapped up. Does it provide you anymore flexibility to be more cost reactive when you see these volumes slowing?

Matthew K. Rose: There is not any thing in the contract that changes that, but we are positioned with all of our work groups that we can make adjustments if needed. We rebalance the near term, we need employees so we do not hire people and furlough but we can furlough if it is necessary we did do retention boards last year to the whole sum of the people we had hired and we will use that some of those people this year, so nothing new in the contracts.

Ken Hoexter (Merrill Lynch): International Intermodal is up 18%, Coal is up 15%, and Ag is up almost 10%. Those increases seem to be bigger than the others. Is that due to your ability to capture fuel quicker in those segments or is there something else in there, just more pricing contracts within those segments during the quarter or anything affecting those?

Matthew K. Rose: The big thing in international is the reduction in revenues empties and then somewhat partial offset with westbound export loads and so that just have a huge impact on RPU for that international segment. In Ag, it was the ability to capture what the world markets were asking for in the run up of the commodity prices as well, so we had a lot of positive aspects from an RPU standpoint that came into play in the quarter. For Coal, you are starting to finally see fuel bleed into the RCAP numbers and so for the customers that we have fuel surcharges with, we are collecting fuel surcharge with the customers that we do not have surcharges with that, we are subtracting with RCAP, you are starting to see RCAP recognized.

Randy Cousins (BMO Capital Markets): You include real estate in the materials in other lines. What that number was in the fourth quarter, what the outlook is for real estate in 2008?

Matthew K. Rose: It is not a lot and it is not a lot in 2008.

Randy Cousins (BMO Capital Markets): You had a number of initiatives with the coal to put new customers on the line. What do you think organic growth is from your existing customer base and what you see in terms of growth with new customers and who are starting out facilities or switching to Powder River Basin coal?

Matthew K. Rose: We look at overall growth rate in 4% to 5 % range for this year and it is a combination of organic growth, some new business and then some increase in current customers. For example, we got one plant that was doing more importing of coal that has now shifted back to some PRB. You might consider that organic growth, but it was tonnage that was going some place else before. It is a combination of all those and we think it is in the 4% to 5% overall range this year.
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