Postmarked for Profit

A $450 million year over year increase in costs due to staff shortages and a decline of seven percent in quarterly profit: FedEx' recent quarterly results aren't giving investors too much to be happy about, with shares falling by 4.6 percent after the publication of its current financial report. Nevertheless, it still firmly sits in the top 3 of the highest valuated publicly traded courier companies.

Challenging the first and second spots might prove difficult for the U.S.-based company though. Its strongest home-turf competitor, UPS, stands at a market capitalization of $162.7 billion according to current data by Companies Market Cap. Germany-based Deutsche Post comes in at second place with a market cap of $83.1 billion. With FedEx' share of $60.8 billion, those three companies make up the majority of the courier, express and parcel (CEP) market, which was valuated at $401.5 billion in 2019.

The upcoming fourth quarter of 2021 will prove challenging to all courier companies, with e-commerce transactions most likely sharply increasing due to the holiday season and the continuing spread of the Delta variant, especially in the United States. To counter these developments, FedEx plans to bring on an additional 90,000 temporary workers for the upcoming quarter, an increase by 20,000 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.

Market capitalization numbers at Companies Market Cap are generated by multiplying the share price with the outstanding shares. Due to daily fluctuation, the figures are subject to constant change and can only serve as a snapshot of current developments.