FedEx is still thriving thanks to everyone who buys things online

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Shares of FedEx FDX skyrocketed more than 6% on Friday after the shipping giant reported earnings and revenues for its final quarter, which far exceeded forecasts and delivered healthy outlooks for 2021.

Sales increased more than 20% in the quarter to $ 21.5 billion, while net income more than doubled to $ 890 million.

Much of the growth was due to the rising demand for products people buy on their phones and computers – a trend that is not going to disappear any time soon.

FedEx’s results are even more impressive given the messy breakup of the company Amazon AMZN in 2019. But FedEx has found many willing retailers to partner with and has more than replaced Amazon’s lost revenue.

“We remain excited about the diversification and evolution of the e-commerce market,” said Brie Carere, FedEx’s chief of marketing and communications, during a conference call with analysts Thursday evening. “Some of our largest retail customers reported e-commerce growth rates in the double and even triple digits through 2020,”

Carere added that e-commerce accounted for 20% of all US retail sales in the fourth quarter of last year, well above pre-pandemic levels.

The Covid-19 outbreak and resulting increase in digital retail offerings has been a boom for both FedEx and top rival UPS UPSShares of FedEx are up 150% in the last 12 months, while shares of UPS are up 70%.

Carere shook off concerns that FedEx would lose momentum as more people venture out and shop again in the physical world as Covid-19 vaccinations increase.

She admitted that there is “the potential for a short-term slowdown in e-commerce shopping,” but that digital commerce will continue to grow as a percentage of the total retail market.

FedEx – and UPS, for that matter – are also benefiting from contracts to ship Covid-19 vaccines and related supplies around the world. That includes a deal in the US to get the Modern MRNA and Pfizer PFEBioNTech BNTX shots as well as the newly approved single dose Johnson & Johnson JNJ vaccine.

FedEx CEO Fred Smith said during the analyst call that the company ships vaccines to more than 220 countries and territories around the world.

Vaccine deliveries so far have been “nearly flawless,” he added, noting that “you can count on your hand for the number of problems with the number of vaccines we have delivered in the millions.”

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