UPS continued riding a wave of skyrocketing shipping demand from online shopping and vaccine deliveries in the first quarter of the year, with both profit and revenue soaring.
The company reported $4.8 billion in net income for the first three months of the year, up from $965 million a year earlier. A $2.4 billion pension accounting adjustment also drove results sharply higher.
The strong first-quarter report came after UPS booked record revenue for 2020 amid a pandemic that weakened many companies' financial results.
CEO Carol Tomé said in a written statement that the company's new strategy of being "better not bigger" helped drive record financial results. "I want to thank all UPSers for delivering what matters, including COVID-19 vaccines," she said.
However, the package delivery giant declined to forecast its revenue or profit for the year, due to "continued economic uncertainty."
UPS reported $22.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter, up 27% from its $18 billion in revenue in the year-ago quarter. That came from a 14.3% increase in the number of packages it carried and an 11.4% increase in average revenue per package.
UPS had operating expenses of $20.1 billion in the quarter, up 18.7% from $17 billion a year ago.
The company's $2.4 billion mark-to-market pension benefit in the first quarter was the result of the COVID-19 stimulus package signed into law in March 2021 as the American Rescue Plan Act, which among other measures aimed to prevent certain pension plans from becoming insolvent. That resulted in a reduction in UPS pension liability.
