Kirby Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Kirby Q2 Earnings Call Highlights Kirby reaffirmed and raised its earnings outlook: Second-quarter EPS was $1.67, flat year over year but up 11% sequentially, and management now expects full-year EPS growth toward the upper end of its 5%–15% range. Marine transportation remained well utilized despite margin pressure: Revenue increased 9% year over year, while operating income fell 11% due to temporarily higher fuel costs and elevated shipyard activity. Kirby expects to recover most of the fuel-cost impact through contractual adjustments in the third quarter. Power generation and marine repair drove Distribution and Services growth: Segment revenue rose 6%, while the power-generation backlog expanded to $1 billion–$1.5 billion, supported by demand from data centers and industrial customers. Kirby also repurchased nearly $60 million of stock during the quarter and about $29 million more early in the third quarter. Kirby NYSE: KEX reported second-quarter 2026 earnings per share of $1.67, up 11% sequentially and unchanged from the prior-year quarter, as strong marine transportation utilization and growth in power generation and marine repair supported results. Chief Executive Officer David Grzebinski said the company’s businesses benefited from “constructive marine transportation fundamentals, high asset utilization,” and continued momentum in Distribution and Services. Kirby reaffirmed its full-year earnings-per-share growth outlook of 5% to 15% and said it now expects results to trend toward the upper end of that range. Marine transportation revenue rises, while fuel and shipyard costs weigh on profit Marine transportation revenue totaled $537 million in the quarter, up 9% from a year earlier and 8% sequentially. Segment operating income was $88 million, down 11% year over year and down 2% from the first quarter, producing a 16.4% operating margin. Chief Financial Officer Raj Kumar said the year-over-year decline in operating income reflected temporarily higher fuel costs ahead of contractual recovery mechanisms and elevated shipyard activity in the coastal business. Inland marine, which represented 80% of segment revenue, recorded average barge utilization in the low 90% range. Spot market rates increased in the low- to mid-single-digit range from the first quarter but remained down in the low-single-digit range from the prior-year period. Renewing term contracts increased in the low-single-digit range year over year. Grzebinski said inland conditions were supported by refinery utilization, refined-product and crude movements, petrochemical activity and limited industry capacity additions. He added that Venezuelan crude imports into the Gulf Coast had recovered to more than 600,000 barrels per day from prior lows of about 200,000 barrels per day. Management said the fuel-cost effect created a roughly $0.05 to $0.10 per-share headwind in the second quarter, toward the higher end of that range. The company expects to recover most of the impact in the third quarter through fuel-adjustment clauses in customer contracts. For the full year, Kirby expects inland revenue growth in the mid- to high-single-digit range and operating margins in the high teens to low 20% range. Grzebinski said spot pricing is currently about 10% to 15% above contract pricing, which he views as constructive ahead of the company’s heavy fourth-quarter contract renewal season. Coastal marine revenue, representing 20% of marine segment revenue, rose 10% year over year. Barge utilization was in the high 90% range, while term-contract renewals declined in the low-single-digit range due to market dynamics affecting 80,000- to 100,000-barrel articulated tug-barge vessels.