Every UPS Investor Should Keep an Eye on This Number

There is always a mass of numbers and data to observe when a company reports earnings, certainly for a company with many moving parts like United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). That said, I think there's one key metric that investors should watch very closely when UPS releases its fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 30.Zeroing in on UPS' core U.S. domestic package segment, investors already know that delivery volumes are improving again, with a 6.5% increase in average daily volume on a year-over-year basis in the third quarter. However, a lot of the volume increase comes from relatively lower revenue per-piece deliveries, which management describes as "short zone, lightweight e-commerce packages" flowing into its network. As such, the transportation company needs to improve the relationship between revenue per piece, or RPP (up is good), and cost per piece, or CPP (down is good). As you can see below, RPP declined in the third quarter, but CPP was down more, leading to a positive spread.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool