Expeditors Reports Second Quarter 2017 EPS of $0.60

SEATTLE, Aug. 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. EXPD today announced second quarter 2017 financial results including the following highlights compared to the same quarter of 2016:

• Diluted Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders per share (EPS¹) decreased 5% to $0.60
• Net Earnings Attributable to Shareholders decreased 6% to $109 million
• Operating Income decreased 6% to $168 million
• Revenues increased 13% to $1.7 billion
• Net Revenues² increased 2% to $564 million
• Airfreight tonnage volume increased 9% and ocean container volume increased 4%

"Volumes remain strong across all of our services and we believe we continue to take profitable market share," said Jeffrey S. Musser, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our order management, warehousing and distribution, Transcon, and customs brokerage businesses performed exceptionally well during the quarter. While we experienced similar margin pressures that we have seen in recent quarters in our air and ocean offerings, we recorded some of the highest freight volumes in our company's history. As always, our people provided outstanding customer service and performed extremely well in this environment.

"Global demand for air and ocean capacity continues to be stronger than we have seen in the past few years, which has led to a scarcity of favorable pricing. As the rate environment continues to shift, we are being increasingly disciplined in how we work both with our customers and with our carrier partners to secure access to capacity. In June, we initiated rate increases in certain high-volume lanes in response to the current market and expect to see strong demand, tight capacity, and rate volatility to continue throughout the remainder of the year."

Bradley S. Powell, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, added, "All regions have added people to process additional shipment volumes in order to maintain our high level of customer service. We are handling more shipments and are doing so more efficiently than ever before. We continue to focus on implementing process improvements and investing in our core technologies that allow us to grow our business profitably. As the industry continues to evolve and innovate at a more rapid pace, we are also making additional investments to develop strategies, including the use of technologies that allow us to maintain our leadership position."

Expeditors is a global logistics company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company employs trained professionals in 177 district offices and numerous branch locations located on six continents linked into a seamless worldwide network through an integrated information management system. Services include the consolidation or forwarding of air and ocean freight, customs brokerage, vendor consolidation, cargo insurance, time-definite transportation, order management, warehousing and distribution and customized logistics solutions.

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¹Diluted earnings attributable to shareholders per share.
²Non-GAAP measure calculated as revenues less directly related operating expenses attributable to the Company's principal services. See reconciliation on the last page of this release.
NOTE:  See Disclaimer on Forward-Looking Statements on the following page of this release.

Expeditors International of Washington, Inc.
Second Quarter 2017 Earnings Release, August 8, 2017
Financial Highlights for the Three and Six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 (Unaudited)
(in 000's of US dollars except per share data)

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¹Non-GAAP measure calculated as revenues less directly related operating expenses attributable to the Company's principal services. See reconciliation on the last page of this release.

²Includes recovery of certain legal and related fees totaling $8 million for both the quarter and year-to date periods ended June 30, 2017 compared to $5 million in the same periods in 2016 and the favorable resolution of an indirect tax contingency of $6 million in the second quarter of 2017. We do not expect further recoveries in either matter.

During the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2017, we repurchased 1.5 million and 2.5 million shares of common stock at an average price of $55.02 and $55.58 per share, respectively. During the three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2016, the Company repurchased 1.9 million and 3.4 million shares of common stock at an average price of $49.47 and $48.75 per share, respectively.

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Investors may submit written questions via e-mail to: investor@expeditors.com. Questions received by the end of business on August 11, 2017 will be considered in management's 8-K "Responses to Selected Questions" expected to be filed on or about August 21, 2017.

Disclaimer on Forward-Looking Statements:
Certain portions of this release contain forward-looking statements which are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including comments on continuing to take profitable market share, the global demand for air and ocean capacity, favorable pricing, the shifting rate environment, our ability to secure access to capacity, our expectation that we will see strong demand, tight capacity, and rate volatility throughout the remainder of the year, our ability to maintain a high level of customer service, our ability to handle more shipments more efficiently than ever before, our ability to implement process improvements and invest in core technologies that allow us to grow our business profitably, and our ability to make investments to develop strategies, including the use of additional technologies that allow us to maintain our leadership position. Actual future results and trends may differ materially from historical results or those projected in any forward-looking statements depending on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, the future success of our business model, our ability to maintain consistent and stable operating results, our ability to perpetuate profits, changes in customer demand for Expeditors' services caused by a general economic slow-down, changes in global trade volumes, customers' inventory build-up, decreased consumer confidence, volatility in equity markets, energy and fuel prices, geopolitical changes, foreign exchange rates, regulatory actions or changes or the unpredictable acts of competitors and other risks, risk factors and uncertainties detailed in our Annual Report as updated by our reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Net Revenues (Non-GAAP measure)

We commonly refer to the term "net revenues" when commenting about our Company and the results of its operations. Net revenues are a Non-GAAP measure calculated as revenues less directly related operations expenses attributable to the Company's principal services. We believe that net revenues are a better measure than are total revenues when analyzing and discussing our effectiveness in managing our principal services since total revenues earned as a freight consolidator must consider the carriers' charges to us for carrying the shipment, whereas revenues earned in other capacities include primarily the commissions and fees earned by us. Net revenue is one of our primary operational and financial measures and demonstrates our ability to concentrate and leverage purchasing power through effective consolidation of shipments from customers utilizing a variety of transportation carriers and optimal routings. Using net revenues also provides a commonality for comparison among various services. The following table presents the calculation of net revenues.

CONTACTS:

Jeffrey S. Musser
President and Chief Executive Officer
(206) 674-3433

Bradley S. Powell
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
(206) 674-3412

Geoffrey Buscher
Director - Investor Relations
(206) 892-4510