UPS Stock: Buy, Sell, or Hold?

(NYSE: UPS) investors got what they wanted from the company's recent first-quarter earnings report. The market was left unimpressed after management's investor and analyst day in late March when management laid out its three-year strategic aims and financial targets. However, the latest earnings helped restore confidence in those targets. Still, is it enough to make the stock a buy? Here's the lowdown.

It's never a comfortable situation when a company unveils three-year financial targets and then, in the same presentation, provides insights on the Q1 trading that could potentially challenge its full-year guidance. This was the case with UPS, and the market reacted quickly.

As previously outlined, CFO Brian Newman shocked the market on the investor analyst day when he told investors to expect a 40% decline in adjusted-operating profit in Q1 (due to close a few days after the presentation). According to my calculations, this would result in about $1.5 billion in adjusted-operating profit in Q1 when the Wall Street consensus at the time was $1.75 billion.

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Source Fool.com