Adding to Frazier’s comments on the conference call, COO Nick Hobbs—who also oversees the company’s highway and final-mile services—said his team is seeing signs across J.B. Hunt’s truck and brokerage businesses that the more vigorous regulatory climate is starting to count.
“It’s just tightened it up,” Hobbs said. “We’ve seen a little tightness in probably eight to 10 markets—and I think you can kind of follow the news around and see where ICE is active in big metropolitan areas. It’s a combination of non-domiciled, it’s also some cabotage, but it’s also some fear factors.”
Hobbs, Frazier, and President and CEO Shelley Simpson did, however, make it clear on their call that any supply improvements from regulatory actions will mean little to the broader fortunes of J.B. Hunt or the industry as a whole without a clear uptick in demand. As Hobbs put it, it’s “going to take the economic side along with the regulation side.”
Port situation aside, there will still be a peak
On that front, J.B. Hunt’s third-quarter results—headlined by net profits of $171 million on operating revenues (excluding fuel surcharges) of $3.05 billion—showed a few hopeful data points. Truckload revenues rose 10% from the same time last year to $190 million, and revenues from dedicated customers ticked up 2% to $864 million. And intermodal, which accounts for half of sales, saw revenues and volumes dip 2% and 1%, respectively, as executives focused on better balancing their network.
J.B. Hunt’s profit climbed 12% from last year’s third-quarter—with operating margins rising to 7.9% from 7.3%—thanks in part to a cost-cutting program Simpson and her team rolled out earlier this year. That initiative is targeting more than $100 million in long-term savings, roughly a fifth of which was realized during Q3.
Looking ahead to what’s left of 2025, Frazier said chatter about a complete pull-forward of the peak season has been exaggerated. That, he said, appears to have been the case with ocean freight but many of J.B. Hunt’s customers continue to expect a solid peak season thanks to freight that still needs to make its way onto trucks.
“No one has cancelled Christmas,” Frazier said.
Shares of J.B. Hunt (Ticker: JBHT) soared more than 22% to nearly $170 on the Q3 report and its improved margins. They are now at their highest point since February, and J.B. Hunt’s market capitalization now stands at nearly $16.5 billion.
