• Brokerage volume increased 6% year-over-year
• Brokerage gross margin of 16.3 percent
• Operating cash flow of $42 million and adjusted free cash flow of $37 million
• Company announces $125 million share repurchase program

RXO (NYSE: RXO) today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2023.

Drew Wilkerson, chief executive officer of RXO, said, “RXO continued to deliver solid results in the first quarter, despite the current challenges in the freight market and the economy. Our brokerage business gained market share and recorded a 6 percent increase in volume year-over-year. We also maintained best-in-class brokerage gross margin of 16.3 percent.”

Wilkerson continued, “RXO ended the first quarter with $121 million in cash, up $23 million from last quarter. I’m pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has authorized a $125 million share repurchase program. The authorization reflects the strength of RXO’s balance sheet and supports RXO’s commitment to a balanced capital allocation philosophy.

“RXO’s performance was underpinned by continued adoption of our cutting-edge technology,” Wilkerson said. “Ninety-six percent of RXO’s brokerage loads were created or covered digitally in the quarter, 79 percent of carriers using our technology returned to our platform within seven days, and we surpassed more than 1 million downloads of our driver app, RXO Drive™.

“This is an important part of the freight cycle. Our share gains position us for significant growth when the market inflects. We remain focused on execution and providing best-in-class service to our customers,” Wilkerson concluded.

Companywide Results

The company’s revenue was $1.01 billion for the first quarter, compared to $1.31 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Profitability remained strong, with 18.8 percent adjusted gross margin, up 80 basis points year-over-year.

Due to $14 million in spin-related transaction, integration and restructuring costs, the company reported first-quarter 2023 GAAP net income of $0, compared to net income of $39 million in the first quarter of 2022. Adjusted net income in the quarter was $13 million, compared to $45 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Adjusted EBITDA was $37 million, compared to $75 million in the first quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 3.7 percent, compared to 5.7 percent in the first quarter of 2022.

Spin-related transaction, integration and restructuring costs, and amortization of intangibles, impacted GAAP earnings per share by $0.11, net of tax. For the first quarter, RXO reported GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.00. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.11.

Brokerage

RXO’s brokerage business grew volume 6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter. Brokerage gross margin was 16.3 percent in the first quarter, flat year-over-year.

Brokerage contract volume increased by 19 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, the result of the company’s increased bid activity in the fourth quarter of 2022. Annual bid opportunities, measured in revenue, continued to increase in the first quarter and were up 11 percent sequentially.

The company expects brokerage volumes to continue to grow on a year-over-year basis in the second quarter of 2023.

Complementary Services

RXO’s complementary services increased adjusted gross margin by 160 basis points year-over-year in the quarter. Loads provided by RXO’s managed transportation business to its brokerage business increased significantly in the quarter.

Also in the quarter, RXO announced that it has invested in a new cross-border facility in Laredo, Texas. The warehousing and distribution services site sits at the center of the nearshoring movement – at the border between the United States and Mexico. This premium location and the comprehensive solutions offered through the facility will help streamline supply chains for RXO’s blue-chip customer base.

Technology Update

In the first quarter of 2023, 96 percent of RXO’s brokerage loads were created or covered digitally using RXO’s best-in-class technology platform, up from 87 percent in the fourth quarter and up from 74 percent in the first quarter of 2022.

The average weekly users of the platform increased 25 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, and the seven-day carrier retention rate was 79 percent vs. 74 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Downloads of RXO Drive™, the company’s driver app, increased by 45 percent year-over-year in the first quarter to more than 1 million.

Conference Call

The company will hold a conference call and webcast on Wednesday, May 3 at 8 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Participants can call in toll-free (from U.S./Canada) at 1-888-886-7786; international callers dial +1-416-764-8658. The conference ID is 83931505.

A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the investor relations area of the company’s website, http://investors.rxo.com. A replay of the conference call will be available through May 24, 2023, by calling toll-free (from U.S./Canada) 1-877-674-7070; international callers dial +1-416-764-8692. Use the passcode 931505#. Additionally, the call will be archived on http://investors.rxo.com.

About RXO

RXO (NYSE: RXO) is a leading provider of asset-light transportation solutions. RXO offers tech-enabled truck brokerage services together with complementary solutions including managed transportation, freight forwarding and last mile delivery. The company combines massive capacity and cutting-edge technology to move freight efficiently through supply chains. RXO’s proprietary technology connects approximately 10,000 customers with over 100,000 independent carriers across North America. The company is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. Visit RXO.com for more information and connect with RXO on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We provide reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures contained in this release to the most directly comparable measure under GAAP, which are set forth in the financial tables attached to this release.

The non-GAAP financial measures in this release include: adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“adjusted EBITDA”); adjusted EBITDA margin; adjusted gross margin (revenue less cost of transportation and services (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) and direct operating expense (exclusive of depreciation and amortization)) and adjusted gross margin as a percentage of revenue by service offering; free cash flow and free cash flow as a percentage of adjusted EBITDA (“free cash flow conversion”); adjusted free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow as a percentage of adjusted EBTIDA (“adjusted free cash flow conversion”); and adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per share (“adjusted EPS”).

We believe that these adjusted financial measures facilitate analysis of our ongoing business operations because they exclude items that may not reflect, or are unrelated to, RXO’s core operating performance, and may assist investors with comparisons to prior periods and assessing trends in our underlying businesses. Other companies may calculate these non-GAAP financial measures differently, and therefore our measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. These non-GAAP financial measures should only be used as supplemental measures of our operating performance.

Adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted net income and adjusted EPS include adjustments for transaction and integration costs, as well as restructuring costs and other adjustments as set forth in the attached tables. Management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in making financial, operating and planning decisions and evaluating RXO’s ongoing performance.

We believe that adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, adjusted gross margin and adjusted gross margin as a percentage of revenue improve comparability from period to period by removing the impact of our capital structure (interest and financing expenses), asset base (depreciation and amortization), tax impacts and other adjustments that management has determined do not reflect our core operating activities and thereby assist investors with assessing trends in our underlying business. We believe that adjusted net income and adjusted EPS improve the comparability of our operating results from period to period by removing the impact of certain costs that management has determined do not reflect our core operating activities, including amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, transaction and integration costs, restructuring costs and other adjustments as set out in the attached tables. We believe that free cash flow, free cash flow conversion, adjusted free cash flow and adjusted free cash flow conversion are important measures of our ability to repay maturing debt or fund other uses of capital that we believe will enhance stockholder value. We calculate free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities less payment for purchases of property and equipment plus proceeds from sale of property and equipment. We define adjusted free cash flow as free cash flow less cash paid for transaction, integration and restructuring costs.

Forward-looking Statements

This release includes forward-looking statements, including statements relating to our continued year-over-year brokerage volume growth in the second quarter of 2023. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue," "could," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "should," "will," "expect," "project," "forecast," "goal," "outlook," "target,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terms. However, the absence of these words does not mean that the statements are not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by us in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors we believe are appropriate in the circumstances.

These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause or contribute to a material difference include the risks discussed in our filings with the SEC and the following: competition and pricing pressures; economic conditions generally; the severity, magnitude, duration and aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; fluctuations in fuel prices; increased carrier prices; severe weather, natural disasters, terrorist attacks or similar incidents that cause material disruptions to our operations or the operations of the third-party carriers and independent contractors with which we contract; our dependence on third-party carriers and independent contractors; labor disputes or organizing efforts affecting our workforce and those of our third-party carriers; legal and regulatory challenges to the status of the third-party carriers with which we contract, and their delivery workers, as independent contractors, rather than employees; litigation that may adversely affect our business or reputation; increasingly stringent laws protecting the environment, including transitional risks relating to climate change, that impact our third-party carriers; governmental regulation and political conditions; our ability to develop and implement suitable information technology systems and prevent failures in or breaches of such systems; the impact of potential cyber-attacks and information technology or data security breaches; issues related to our intellectual property rights; our ability to access the capital markets and generate sufficient cash flow to satisfy our debt obligations; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; our ability to successfully implement our cost and revenue initiatives and other strategies; our ability to successfully manage our growth; our reliance on certain large customers for a significant portion of our revenue; damage to our reputation through unfavorable publicity; our failure to meet performance levels required by our contracts with our customers; the inability to achieve the level of revenue growth, cash generation, cost savings, improvement in profitability and margins, fiscal discipline, or strengthening of competitiveness and operations anticipated or targeted; a determination by the IRS that the distribution or certain related separation transactions should be treated as taxable transactions; and the impact of the separation on our businesses, operations and results. All forward-looking statements set forth in this release are qualified by these cautionary statements and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments anticipated by us will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to or effects on us or our business or operations. Forward-looking statements set forth in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, changes in expectations or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except to the extent required by law.

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