It's fair to say Wall Street reacted lukewarmly to ' (NYSE: UPS) first-quarter earnings report. On the positive side, five of them nudged their price targets higher (with BMO Capital taking it to $169). Still, only one has a positive rating on the stock (Oppenheimer's "outperform" rating). The rest remained at "hold/neutral/market perform."

The lack of enthusiasm is understandable. Although UPS beat expectations, it did so after CFO Brian Newman guided the market lower at the investor day presentation in late March -- a few days before the end of the quarter. He told investors to expect a 40% year-over-year decline in adjusted operating profit. I discussed how such a result would pose serious questions about its full-year guidance previously.

However, UPS reported only a 31.5% drop in adjusted operating profit in the quarter, with the "beat" due to a combination of delivery volume improvement late in the quarter and some costs shifting into April from March.

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Source Fool.com