WORCESTER – Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. (Nasdaq: PWX) posted a 2008 profit of $166,000, compared with its 2007 net loss of $652,000. Earnings per diluted common share amounted to 3 cents last year, compared with 2007’s 14-cent loss.
Total annual revenue rose 13.79 percent last year to $30.79 million, from the previous year’s $27.05 million (READ MORE), the regional railroad said. A $4.6 million increase in revenue from conventional freight shipments – led by increases in shipments of ethanol and automobiles, which P&W began handling in the second half of 2007, as well as larger shipments of coal and steel ingots – was partly offset by a $1 million decline in container-freight revenue.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
“The sharp decrease in container revenue resulted from a continuing decline in container traffic volume, which began midway through 2007,” P&W noted in a statement yesterday afternoon. The railroad saw declines “in shipments of construction aggregates, chemicals, building products and other commodities, which appear to be largely attributable to the slowdown experienced by the United States economy.”
In recent months, P&W has been marketing itself as a “greener,” lower-cost alternative for business shipments. “There has been interest nationwide for longer-haul goods, and we’re a part of that,” President P. Scott Conti told PBN in September. (READ MORE) Bigger rail companies hand off shipments to P&W when the deliveries are bound for places such as Providence and Quonset Point, he added. “But we’re not receiving calls from people in that short distance saying they now want to go to rail.”
But despite their economical use of low-sulfur diesel fuel – a train can move a ton of freight as many as 436 miles on one gallon, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR) – rising fuel costs are still an issue for the railroads.
P&W last year saw its operating costs rise $2.63 million, or 9.44 percent, to $30.48 million. “Higher expenditures for diesel fuel accounted for $1.5 million of this increase,” or about 55 percent, the company said.
Last year also saw the company shift its listing from NYSE Euronext’s Amex stock market to the Nasdaq. (READ MORE)
“We are doing well to dig our way out of the doldrums of last year,” Conti told PBN last fall. “We’re survivors.”
A regular quarterly dividend of 9 cents per share of Providence and Worcester common stock was declared by the P&W board of directors on Jan. 28. The board also declared a 10 percent noncumulative annual dividend of $5 per share on the company’s outstanding preferred stock. Both dividends were payable Feb. 23 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 9.
Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. (Nasdaq: PWX) is a regional freight railroad operating in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. To learn more, visit www.pwrr.com.
