Decline to issue full-year guidance, will FedEx Corporation (FDX.US) still allow Beijing Zhidemai Technology to enter? Wall Street longs and shorts collide fiercely.

After FedEx Corporation (FDX.US) announced its fourth quarter performance, analysts commented on it. The company emphasized its resilience in the face of global trade challenges, despite industry weakness, reduced operational days, the expiration of a significant US Postal Service contract, and weather disruptions, the company still managed to achieve profit growth for the second consecutive year. However, the shipping giant did not provide full-year sales or profit expectations, which disappointed investors. The company's stock price dropped after the performance announcement, with a pre-market decline of 4.67% at the time of writing. Evercore ISI analyst Jonathan Chappell gave FedEx Corporation a "hold" rating and raised the target price from $249 to $259. Chappell said, "Even though the expectations for the first quarter of 2026 fiscal year are clearly lower than market expectations, the future trend will be different from past seasonal trends, as specific challenges of this quarter have eased (of course, provided there is no full-blown trade war outbreak). We expect earnings per share for the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year to account for less than 20% of total earnings for the 2026 fiscal year (long-term average is 22%), so although we have lowered our earnings per share forecast for the 2026 fiscal year to $19.16 (down from $19.95), the overall performance for the year may not be as weak as implied by the first quarter." Bank of America Corp analyst Ken Hoexter gave FedEx Corporation a "buy" rating, but lowered the target price from $270 to $245. Hoexter said, "We maintain a buy rating on FedEx Corporation's stock, but the downward adjustment of the target price is based on a 13.0 times price-to-earnings ratio for its 2026 earnings per share. Our price-to-earnings valuation is below the midpoint of its range of 12 to 18 times, because of the growth momentum from the structural cost reductions and value release brought by the soon-to-be spun-off FedEx Corporation freight business, balancing against macroeconomic uncertainties, inflation pressures, and tariff backlogs." Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker assigned a "hold" rating to FedEx Corporation. Shanker noted, "FedEx Corporation's fourth-quarter earnings expectations were mixed, but the future performance guidance was surprising, as management refused to provide guidance for the 2026 fiscal year, and the first-quarter earnings per share were about 9% lower than expected. Starting from this point, achieving earnings per share growth for 2026 will be difficult unless a clear upward trend emerges." Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft gave FedEx Corporation a "buy" rating. Deutsche Bank stated, "We are impressed by FedEx Corporation's overall performance in the last quarter. Specifically, we are pleased to see that in the Express business, revenue performance exceeded expectations due to higher sales, resulting in nearly 75% strong incremental profit margin, one of the best performances we have seen from FedEx Corporation in the past decade." Seeking Alpha analysts gave both FedEx Corporation and United Parcel Service (UPS.US) a "buy" rating. It is worth noting that research company Moretus Research gave a "strong buy" rating to United Parcel Service on Tuesday. Seeking Alpha analysts also issued a new "bullish" rating for United Parcel Service, stating that it has value investment potential in strategic transformation. Seeking Alpha analysts added, "I believe these valuations have already fully reflected the impact of risk factors, but there is still room for further decline. This is a signal of buying at the margin, requiring patient investors who are willing to endure recent volatility in exchange for long-term returns."