By the staff of Investing.com FedEx Corporation (NYSE: ) warned for the first quarter and withdrew guidance for the year, sending the stock down 11% after hours. The delivery giant said it sees first-quarter non-GAAP EPS of $3.44, down from $4.37 last year and well below the $5.14 consensus. The company said results were adversely affected by softness in global volume that accelerated in the final weeks of the quarter. FedEx Express’ results were particularly affected by macroeconomic weakness in Asia and service delivery challenges in Europe, leading to a revenue shortfall in that segment of about $500 million compared to the company’s forecasts. FedEx Ground’s revenue was about $300 million below the company’s forecast. “Global volumes declined as macroeconomic trends worsened significantly later in the quarter, both internationally and in the US. We are quickly addressing these headwinds, but given the speed with which conditions changed, our first quarter results are below our expectations,” said Raj Subramaniam, FedEx. President and CEO of the company. “While this performance is disappointing, we are aggressively accelerating our cost reduction efforts and evaluating additional measures to improve productivity, reduce variable costs and implement structural cost reduction initiatives. These efforts align with the strategy we outlined in June, and I remain confident of achieving our financial goals for fiscal year 2025.” As a result of preliminary first-quarter financial performance and expectations of a continued volatile operating environment, FedEx is withdrawing its fiscal 2023 earnings guidance issued on June 23, 2022.
