Atlas Air Misses Estimates, Talks Partnership With Amazon

released its Q2 results before the open on Wednesday. Earnings per share came in below Wall Street consensus expectations and shares remained flat in Wednesday's pre-market session Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings reported EPS of $0.8 and revenues of $443.272 million. Analyst consensus had an EPS estimate of $0.93 and revenues of $473.9 million. "The ongoing development of our strategic platform is expanding our business base, moving us more deeply into the faster-growing express and e-commerce markets, and driving long-term growth opportunities. In an otherwise challenging environment during the quarter, these historic transactions stand out.

"Our acquisition of Southern Air in early April and the addition of its express-focused 777 and 737 CMI services generated immediate earnings accretion in the second quarter. Our quarterly earnings also reflected an increase in military cargo and passenger demand but a slower pace in general commercial cargo" noted William J. Flynn, President and CEO. " In addition, we incurred initial startup expenses in preparation for our new long-term 767 service for Amazon and its growing e-commerce business. "We expect to place our first aircraft into service for Amazon soon in this quarter. We have secured all of the conversion slots and the vast majority of the feedstock aircraft required to support 20 B767-300s for Amazon by the end of 2018" said Flynn.

Management expected adjusted earnings per share in the third quarter of 2016 to be approximately 20% to 25% of our full-year 2016 adjusted EPS. Total block hours including Southern Air were expected to increase about 20 percent and Southern Air's maintenance expense was expected to total $200 million for the2016. At the time of writing, Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings traded at $41.1 in Wednesday's pre-market session.