Company Announcements

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2025-- Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (NYSE:EXPD) today announced first quarter 2025 financial results including the following comparisons to the same quarter of 2024:

• Diluted Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders per share (EPS¹) increased 26% to $1.47
• Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders increased 20% to $204 million
• Operating Income increased 24% to $266 million
• Revenues increased 21% to $2.7 billion
• Airfreight tonnage increased 9% and ocean container volume increased 8%

"We continue to pull the right levers to grow all of our businesses with current customers as well as new ones," said Daniel R. Wall, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We grew air tonnage and ocean volumes year-over-year as all of our teams across our global network performed their best in a very difficult market. I especially want to thank our brokerage teams for maximizing their efforts and all of their additional work to address the frenzied landscape of tariffs, threats of tariffs, shifting geopolitics, and other disruptions that have had shippers around the world rapidly re-evaluating the risks to their supply chains. While we often have performed well when the marketplace is most unpredictable, I am not sure any of us have ever seen anything like the non-stop, rapidly shifting rules and regulations that have impacted our industry in recent days. We believe we are staffed with the right talent in the right locations to help our customers function and navigate this chaotic trade environment. Customers often turn to us for our cross-border expertise and we have held hundreds of near-daily industry update sessions with thousands of participants to keep current and potential customers abreast of the latest regulatory changes and solutions to get their freight where it needs to be.

“Compared to a year ago, airfreight increased on higher buy and sell rates and growth in tonnage from strong demand, primarily in technology, as importers front-loaded shipments in anticipation of higher trade tariffs. Air capacity remained tight due to e‑commerce export demand from North Asia and ongoing re-sourcing to South Asia and India. Our ocean business favorably compares to the first quarter a year ago and grew in strength on higher volumes and rates as importers also front-loaded shipments, as well as extended transit times because of the continuing conflict in the Red Sea. Our customs and other businesses increased on growth in customs clearances and additional ancillary services from increased shipments, as well as increased road freight volumes, and growth in new business in warehousing and distribution, principally in North America.

“Looking back on Q1, we performed well across all of our businesses. However, the short- and longer-term future is as unpredictable to us as it is to everyone. While we currently expect air capacity and rates to remain volatile, it is too early to predict what impact an end to the de minimis exemption may have on air capacity and rates going forward, as there are other economic and geopolitical unknowns to consider. Subsequent to March 31, 2025, we are seeing early signs that China to U.S. ocean volumes are declining significantly. While some of those volumes are shifting to other lanes, as customers look to mitigate their exposure to China-specific tariffs, it is too early to know what the overall decline in volumes might be. Speculation regarding additional tariffs may cause more customers to pause or cancel shipments entirely. While carriers have shown a willingness to manage capacity, the current environment is so unsettled that they simply may not be able to do enough to keep rates from continuing to fall if consumer resilience fades and the capacity/demand imbalance becomes significant in certain lanes.

"We believe that uncertainty is likely to continue for some time, with possibly significant impacts to our industry. We also remain optimistic that trade will continue to flow, and we will work closely with our customers to find solutions to keep their cargo moving. We believe that wherever trade moves, we already have talented people and operational infrastructure on-site to handle that business.”

Bradley S. Powell, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, added, “During the quarter, we carefully boosted headcount in certain areas to support growth in business activity, primarily in operations and sales, as well as our critical information systems. But we were again careful not to increase headcount ahead of our ability to grow tonnage and volumes and increase profitability, growing pre-tax operating income by 24% from a year ago. Our measure of operating efficiency (operating income as a percentage of revenue less directly related cost of transportation and other expenses) was in line with our 30% target.”

Mr. Powell noted that the Company generated $343 million in cash from operations and returned $177 million to shareholders through stock repurchases, while continuing to make significant investments in cybersecurity and other technology to protect, upgrade, and strengthen current systems, while also investing to deploy new and enhanced technology solutions.

Expeditors is a global logistics company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. The Company employs trained professionals in 172 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 inflation; continued growth in air and ocean carrier capacity and the impact on rates; unpredictability in the ocean and air markets, including uncertainty due to conflicts in the Middle East and Red Sea; national policy changes on tariffs and other similar measures; port actions and other labor disruptions; new capacity in the marketplace; longer ocean transit times; e-commerce demand in the air market; changing de minimis laws; and volatile rates. Future financial performance could differ materially because of factors such as: our ability to secure higher air tonnage and ocean volumes; our ability to carefully add headcount and keep other costs in check while continuing to generate efficiency that meets our historical expectations; the alignment of our variable compensation structure with performance; our ability to enhance and bolster our network security; that management is able to grow the business and explore new areas for profitable growth; our ability to take market share; our ability to offer cross-border customs expertise; our ability to offer solutions to address the ever shifting tariff changes; our ability to find solutions to keep cargo moving for our customers during highly uncertain market conditions; 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. Geopolitical risks, port actions, other labor disruptions, tariffs, the removal of the de minimis exemption for goods manufactured in China and Hong Kong, and 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 and contingencies, including risks associated with tax audits, 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, 2024, 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 months ended March 31, 2025 we repurchased 1.5 million shares of common stock at an average price of $117.29 per share. During the three months ended March 31, 2024 we repurchased 3.0 million shares of common stock at an average price of $120.17 per share.

Investors may submit written questions via e-mail to: investor@expeditors.com. Questions received by the end of business on May 9, 2025 will be considered in management's 8-K “Responses to Selected Questions.”

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NOTE: See Disclaimer on Forward-Looking Statements in this release.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250505900973/en/

Daniel R. Wall
President and Chief Executive Officer
(206) 674-3455

Bradley S. Powell
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
(206) 674-3412

Geoffrey Buscher
Director - Investor Relations
(206) 892-4510

Source: Expeditors International of Washington, Inc.