“With the increased capital spending to date, we now expect full year 2022 capital to be around $3.4 billion, up slightly from our prior guidance, but well within our overall guidance of less than 15% of revenue.”

In context

“xpect other expense to be flat versus 2021 as we are anticipating the receipt of an insurance settlement for last year's bridge fire. Overall, inflation and cost inefficiencies offset the benefits of volume leverage and resulted in fuel-adjusted incremental margins of just 2%. Although not the results we know we can achieve, it still reflects positive progress from the second quarter and provides us with momentum as we wrap up 2022. Turning to Slide 19 and our cash flows. Cash from operations through the third quarter increased 9% to $7.1 billion. Our comparable cash flow conversion rate was 80%, and free cash flow totaled $2.1 billion. Although this is a decrease of $517 million versus 2021, it includes $745 million of increased cash capital spending and $317 million in higher dividends. With the increased capital spending to date, we now expect full year 2022 capital to be around $3.4 billion, up slightly from our prior guidance, but well within our overall guidance of less than 15% of revenue. Year-to-date, shareholders have received $7.9 billion through dividends and share repurchases. This level of cash returns demonstrates our firm commitment to rewarding shareholders with strong returns. Related to share repurchases, we now expect to buy back roughly $6.5 billion in 2022. Although we repurchased shares at a strong pace in the third quarter and expect that to continue for the remainder of the year, we have been impacted by higher-than-anticipated inflationary pressures and service costs. Lastly, we finished the third quarter with a comparable adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.8x as we continue to maintain a strong investment-grade credit rating. In fact, during the quarter, we received an upgrade from Moody's to A3, and we are now A-rated across all 3 credit agencies. Also”