Greenbrier Drops Most on Russell 2000 as Railcar Demand Weakens

(Bloomberg) -- Greenbrier Cos. fell the most on the Russell 2000 Index after the company lowered its earnings forecast and expectations for railcar deliveries, reflecting a drop in railroad cargo.

Earnings for 2016 are now expected to be as much as $5.90 a share, down from as much as $6.10 in an April forecast, Greenbrier said in a statement Wednesday. The company cut the upper range of railcar deliveries by 1,000 units to 21,000. That raised shareholder concerns about demand next year, said Allison Poliniak-Cusic, an analyst at Wells Fargo & Co, in a note.

“We believe that investors will likely remain focused on the declining backlog and subsequent impact on results heading into 2017,” she said.

U.S. railroads are struggling with a decline in cargo volume of commodities such as coal and sand used in oil drilling, leading to a drop in demand for new rail cars. Cargo dropped 6.5 percent for large U.S. railroads in the first quarter and the decline has worsened in the second quarter, according to weekly reports from the Association of American Railroads. 

Greenbrier dropped 7.5 percent to $26.64 at 10:38 a.m. in New York, after being down as much as 10 percent. The stock has declined about 18 percent so far this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dagney Pruner in New York at dpruner3@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Bruce Rule, John Lear