P&W Railroad’s 1Q loss shrinks 20.6%

WORCESTER – Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. (Nasdaq: PWX) saw its first-quarter net loss narrow to $922,000, a 20.6-percent decline from the year-ago period’s $1.16 million loss, on revenue that grew 15.6 percent to $6.1 million.
“Historically, the company has experienced its lowest levels of operating revenue and income during the first quarter of each year,” the company noted in its after-market report.
P&W posted a quarterly loss of 19 cents per common share, compared with a year-ago loss of 26 cents per share. The improvement came despite a rise in diesel fuel expenses, which rose $241,000, or 51.9 percent, compared with a year ago.
Conventional freight revenue grew 26.3 percent compared with the 2007 first quarter, P&W said. The company railroad cited “shipments of ethanol and automobiles – two commodities which the company began handling during the second half of 2007 – as well as increased shipments of coal and steel ingots.”
Those increases were partially offset by a 52.2-percent year-over-year decline in container-freight revenue. The railroad, which has been posting declines in container traffic since the second quarter of last year, said the first-quarter decline in shipments of construction aggregates, chemicals, building products and other commodities was “largely attributable to the economic slow-down experienced by the United States economy.”
Effective yesterday, P&W’s common stock began trading on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC. “We believe that Nasdaq’s electronic multiple-market-maker structure will provide our company with enhanced exposure and liquidity,” President P. Scott Conti said early this month, in announcing plans to transfer the company’s shares from the American Stock Exchange. (READ MORE)
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.