FedEx (FDX) shares slide lower in the after-hours trading session after the courier missed on second-quarter earnings estimates, falling short on the top and bottom lines.

Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton take a closer look at the postal operator's latest earnings figures and weigh in on FedEx's leadership comments on its outlook.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

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JULIE HYMAN: FedEx earnings just out, and the stock is down 7.25% after its second-quarter numbers. Second quarter adjusted earnings per share, $3.99. That is short of the $4.19 that analysts had been projecting. It looks like revenue was also below what analysts had been estimating but really closer to in line, you could argue there.

Also, we have to talk about the forecast here, because there, FedEx says, that it is going to see a little bit of a decrease in revenue. A low single-digit percentage decline in revenue year-over-year had been looking for flat revenue on a year-over-year basis. That's for fiscal 2024. Again, it's reporting its fiscal second quarter today.

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So those disappointments are what is pushing that FedEx stock down here as we look through the release and try to suss out what exactly is going on.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. And it was-- I mean, to take a step back, too, this stock had been very strong performer this year. I mean, it was up more than 60% heading into this earnings print. And a big theme for FedEx has really been really the execution, this focus on efficiency, the kind of cost and productivity improvement plans they have in place.

And also, though, I am interested in their guidance, the commentary they give on there. I would have thought, you know, consumer has proven resilient. So I would have-- I would have thought maybe they would have relatively broadly more positive things to say about the outlook and the holiday quarter. So I think it'll be interesting to hear about what they have to say about that on the call.

You can hear the CEO here in his statement saying, talking about two consecutive quarters of operating income growth, margin expansion. And he talks about that happening even with lower revenue, talks about the progress they're making again on their transformation as they navigate what he is calling here an uncertain demand environment. So more color and insight about what he means by that and going ahead will be critical.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. And the CFO's comments, John Dietrich, kind of echoing that, talking about demand continuing to pressure the top line. But he says, we're pleased with our ability to deliver strong operating leverage and improve profitability. So this seems to be the message that FedEx is trying to send in the wake of these numbers that in the face of some declining demand dynamics, they're trying to pull on the levers that they can to keep the business more profitable.