FedEx Stock: Price-Target Cuts Hit After Big Earnings Miss

FedEx Express delivery truck parked on street in San Francisco, California — (Image credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

FedEx (FDX) stock is spiraling Friday after the logistics giant missed top- and bottom-line expectations for its fiscal first quarter and revised its full-year outlook.

In the quarter ended August 31, FedEx's revenue decreased 0.5% year-over-year to $21.6 billion and its earnings per share (EPS) plunged 20.9% from the year-ago period to $3.60.

In a statement, FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam called the quarter "challenging." However, he added that the company remained "focused on transforming our network, improving our efficiency, lowering our cost-to-serve, and enhancing our ability to adapt with speed to evolving market dynamics."

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Subramaniam says he is "confident in the value-creation opportunities ahead as we focus on reducing our structural cost, growing revenue profitably, and leveraging the insights from our vast collection of data as we continue to build the world's most flexible, efficient, and intelligent network."

FedEx's results fell short of analysts' expectations. Wall Street was anticipating revenue of $21.9 billion and earnings of $4.76 per share, according to CNBC.

As a result of this disappointing start to the year, FedEx revised its full-year outlook. The company now anticipates low single-digit revenue growth and earnings per share in the range of $20 to $21. It had previously forecasted low to mid-single-digit revenue growth and EPS in the range of $20 to $22.

"Our revised outlook reflects our continued confidence in the execution of our DRIVE [cost-cutting] initiatives and the effects of our recent pricing actions, which we expect to help offset weaker-than-expected demand trends," said FedEx Chief Financial Officer John Dietrich in a statement.

Is FedEx stock a buy, sell or hold?

It's been a volatile year for FedEx on the price charts and Friday's decline nearly erases the industrial stock's year-to-date gain. Still, Wall Street has remained bullish toward FDX.

According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, the average analyst target price for FDX stock is $310.77, representing implied upside of more than 20% to current levels. Additionally, the consensus recommendation is Buy. However, analysts are downwardly revise their price targets and ratings and may cut their ratings following the disappointing quarter.

Financial services firm Stifel is one of those that lowered its price rating on FedEx after earnings, to $321 from $327, while maintaining its Buy rating on the large-cap stock.

"Secular macroeconomic tailwinds are waning for FedEx, or are at least on pause for now, especially as trends like e-commerce penetration of total retail reset lower vs where they were at the height of the pandemic," says Stifel analyst Bruce Chan. "We believe there is still long-term opportunity for FedEx once secular trends resume their glide path post-COVID, and in a more mature and more disciplined global oligopoly, FedEx should be well-positioned to benefit."

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Joey Solitro is a freelance financial journalist at Kiplinger with more than a decade of experience. A longtime equity analyst, Joey has covered a range of industries for media outlets including The Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha, Market Realist, and TipRanks. Joey holds a bachelor's degree in business administration.