Triumph Financial reported a fourth quarter with figures that supported signs of a strengthening transportation market, as it added two major new customers to its Triumph Network payment process.
Between its Factoring segment and its Payments arm, which includes Triumph Network which audits and pays its brokerage clients and is seen as the long-term core of the company, there were data points in the quarterly report that demonstrated the strength of the freight forwarding market.
Triumph Financial (NYSE: TFIN) said the average size of invoices processed on its network increased to $1,215 in the fourth quarter, up from $1,208 in the third quarter and a recent low of $1,186 in the second quarter. The fourth quarter figure also surpassed the fourth quarter 2024 figure of $1,123. The size of the bills is affected by diesel prices, but they decreased throughout the quarter.
In its Factoring segment, the average invoice size amounted to $1,751. While that’s still down from a year ago, when it was $1,767, it was the second consecutive quarter of a sequential gain. That figure was $1,690 in the third quarter and $1,663 in the second quarter.
Graft’s letter also said that so far in 2026, the bill size has increased to $1,880, “which is unusual, but not yet based on enough data to make a trend.”
Rising invoice prices don’t necessarily translate into higher profitability, but they did at Triumph Financial during the quarter. In the Factoring segment, the operating margin was 32.61%, compared to 20.71% in the previous quarter. It was well below the 48.46% in the second quarter, but higher than the 23.67% margin a year earlier.
Triumph Financial’s earnings, which are also boosted by its banking division, were 77 cents per share on a GAAP basis. According toBuscaAlpha, that exceeded consensus estimates by 47 cents/share. Revenue of $120 million beat estimates by about $9.3 million.
JB Hunt on board
The two big-name clients that have been added to the network are BlueGrace and JB Hunt (NASDAQ: JBHT). The Blue Grace announcement was in November and JB Hunt signed late last week.
In the Payments segment, fourth quarter invoice volume exceeded 9 million. A year ago, there were 6.8 million.
Triumph’s Payments group, which includes the Network but has other activities such as its express payment offering, recorded a positive EBITDA margin of 16.9%, just 10 basis points higher than in the third quarter. That margin was negative in three of the previous eight quarters, and 16.9% was the highest ever recorded for the segment.
“While we already serve 67 of the top 100 brokers and hundreds of smaller brokers, we have the opportunity to serve many more,” Graft said in his letter to investors. “To that end, we are investing in a variety of innovative marketing and sales efforts to encourage brokers to join us.”
Cheaper deals disappearing from the books
Graft also said that as time goes on, the number of Payments customers operating with reduced rates that were implemented to onboard them is decreasing.
“Our product suite is now much more advanced and the network efficiency for customers is much greater than in the early days,” Graft said. “We have reached agreements with almost all customers who are still operating with introductory pricing for years. The fees associated with these agreements will be phased in over the next four quarters, leading to revenue growth and margin expansion.”
Graft said customers exiting lower price offerings will account for about 20% of the expected growth in Payments revenue during 2026.
In his analysis of the freight market, Graft noted that the rising turnover levels evident in the earnings report are not helping brokers, according to data provided by Triumph.
Runners continue to be under pressure
With brokers having contractual business set at levels prior to the rise in spot rates at the end of 2025, a squeeze on margins is being created; Graft’s letter is the latest to make that point.
“A notable trend throughout 2025 was the continued erosion of broker gross margins across the network,” Graft’s letter said. “After peaking in early 2022, average broker margins gradually compressed over the next few years, with a sharp decline in late 2024 and accelerating pressure through 2025. By December 2025, average gross margins had fallen to some of the lowest levels seen in the past five years.”
As CH Robinson (NASDAQ: CHRW) has become the poster child for how artificial intelligence can be used to improve results in logistics, Graft’s letter drew from a similar playbook by providing hard data on how he believes AI has improved financial performance at Triumph.
In its Factoring segment, Graft’s letter said that about 60% of invoices presented to it are “instantly verified and approved by our AI tools, and 20% of them proceed through purchasing and financing without a human touching them,” Graft said. That number remained stable compared to the previous quarter.
The average time to approve an invoice using the company’s artificial intelligence tools is about 12 seconds. The decision to purchase a bill takes about 23 seconds, Graft said.
That has resulted in a reduction in staff, Graft’s letter said. With the “instant decision” tool launched in June 2024, purchased invoices increased by 29%, but headcount decreased by 25%.
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