The fourth-quarter net income went down to $725 million or 74 cents a share against $1,025 billion, or $1.02 a share in the same period last year. The decline was due to a change in the way pension expenses were accounted for and a charge of $527 million for the same. However, analysts said that apart from that change, there was “real” profit boosted by strong growth in consumer business due to higher volume of online shopping in the holiday season.  

 

Profit for the company amounted to $1.28 a share, after the pension-accounting adjustment, against analysts’ expectations of $1.26 a share. UPS also posted fourth-quarter revenue of $14.2 billion, up 6 percent. UPS had a record holiday season when it handled nearly 500 million packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas mainly due to Internet and catalog orders. It delivered 1.13 billion packages in the quarter, up 3.6 percent than a year earlier. UPS stock dropped 50 cents, or 0.66 percent, closing at $75.65 on Tuesday.