Covenant Transportation boosts revenues

Profits slip from adverse judgment

photo David Parker, Covenant Transport

Covenant Transportation Group Inc. boosted its freight revenue in the third quarter by a healthy 5.7 percent, but an adverse court judgment from a 2008 cargo loss cut the company's net income slightly in the quarter.

Covenant said Tuesday its third quarter net income totaled $1.9 million, or 12 cents per share, on revenues of $177.6 million. In the same period a year earlier, the Chattanooga-based trucking company earned $2 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenues of $170.8 million.

"We were pleased that each of our asset-based truckload subsidiaries improved sequentially and year-over-year during the third quarter," Covenant CEO David Parker said in the quarterly earnings release after the market closed.

Parker said Covenant's outlook for the fourth quarter "is positive" and freight revenues and utilization rates "are trending at or above the year-over-year percentage increases generated during the third quarter.

"We expect strong customer demand to continue throughout the fourth quarter in all of our service offerings," Parker said.

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