J.B. Hunt (JBHT) Stock Tanks 11% as Company Sounds the Alarm on Soaring Fuel Bills

TLDR

• J.B. Hunt CFO Brad Delco warned Q3 earnings will drop 5% to 10% from Q2 levels.
• Diesel prices above $6 per gallon are creating a $10M sequential headwind.
• Driver recruitment costs will add another $25M in Q3 versus Q2.
• JBHT stock fell 11% in premarket trading to $243.
• The warning dragged down peers including ODFL, KNX, XPO, SNDR, LSTR, and RXO.

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J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT) stock dropped 11% in premarket trading Wednesday, hitting $243, after CFO Brad Delco told investors at a Morgan Stanley conference that third-quarter earnings would fall 5% to 10% from the second quarter.

The stock was trading up 41% year-to-date coming into Wednesday, so this warning stings.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., JBHT

Delco cited a mismatch between delayed pricing adjustments and rising fuel costs as the main driver of the expected decline. Diesel has climbed to over $6 per gallon, up from around $3.70 a year ago.

“There is a little bit of a mismatch, based upon the delay part of pricing, that we see in intermodal relative to the costs we’re feeling now,” Delco said.

The company rarely gives formal guidance. But Delco said J.B. Hunt is seeing some of the “most radical and abnormal swings in fuel prices” it has ever experienced.

$JBHT -10% after hours. Here’s why:

J.B. Hunt issued a rare Q3 earnings update, saying earnings are expected to fall 5% to 10% sequentially from Q2, well below prior expectations.

The biggest hit is costs:

• About $25M in higher drayage driver costs, including hiring, sign-on… pic.twitter.com/srDoWojLJg

— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) September 16, 2026

Fuel costs alone are expected to create a $10M sequential headwind from Q2 to Q3.

Driver costs are piling on top of that. Higher spending on recruiting, advertising, onboarding, training, and sign-on bonuses will add another $25M in costs in Q3 compared to Q2.

What the Numbers Look Like

Wall Street had been forecasting Q3 earnings per share of $2.09, up from $1.76 a year ago.

The new guidance points to Q3 EPS closer to $1.77, roughly flat year over year. That is a meaningful gap from what analysts had priced in.

For context, J.B. Hunt earned more than $9 per share in 2022. That fell to around $6 in 2025. Wall Street currently expects full-year 2026 earnings of around $7.75 per share, per FactSet.

“Gas prices jumped another $0.30 this week,” Delco added at the conference. “We should be concerned about the consumer.”

Trucking Sector Feels the Pressure

The warning is not staying contained to JBHT. Peers Schneider National (SNDR), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), Knight-Swift Transportation (KNX), RXO (RXO), XPO (XPO), and Landstar System (LSTR) all moved lower ahead of Wednesday’s open.

Despite the cost pressure, Delco and intermodal president Darren Field both pointed to “very strong” demand for intermodal shipping, driven by a shortage of truck drivers.

Field noted that traditional intermodal routes are “the most expensive they’ve ever been,” and said the upcoming 2027 intermodal bid season presents a “big opportunity” to close the gap between costs and truckload rates.

Driver capacity constraints are not easing either. Delco said structural challenges around driver supply are “probably getting worse.”

JBHT stock was down 11% in premarket trading at $243 as of Wednesday morning.