Amerco (NASDAQ: UHAL) reported its fiscal first-quarter 2018 earnings after the market closed on Wednesday. The parent company of the do-it-yourself moving leader and growing self-storage player U-Haul, which also has two insurance company subsidiaries, posted a 3.8% year-over-year increase in revenue, while earnings per share declined 14.2%. Shares of Amerco closed down 7.9% on Thursday. Amerco earnings: The raw numbers Metric Fiscal Q1 2018 Fiscal Q1 2017 Year-Over-Year Change Revenue $957.9 million $923.2 million 3.8% Operating income $229.0 million $259.6 million (11.8%) Net income $126.2 million $147.2 million (14.3%) GAAP earnings per share (EPS) $6.44 $7.51 (14.2%) Data source: Amerco. GAAP = generally accepted accounting principles. While year-over-year revenue grew, a rise in operating expenses resulted in operating income declining, which flowed through to the bottom line. Depreciation expense, net of gains and losses on equipment disposals, increased $31.3 million due to increased costs of acquisitions and lower relative vehicle sales values compared to the same period last year. The company has been dealing with a lower resale market for vehicles for some time. Image source: Getty Images. What happened with Amerco in the quarter? Revenue in the U-Haul segment, which accounted for 92.1% of total revenue, increased 4.3% from the year-ago period to $882.5 million. Revenue in the insurance segment (comprised of one property-casualty and one life-insurance company) declined 2.4% to $76.8 million. (Revenue from the two segments adds up to slightly more than the company's total revenue because there's a small revenue elimination, which eliminates the sale of goods and services between the two business units.) Within the U-Haul segment, DIY-moving equipment rental revenue grew 3.6% from the year-ago period to $669.9 million. Growth was driven by increases in both one-way and in-town transactions. Relative to the year-ago quarter, the company's rental fleet size is larger, as is the number of rental locations, which include independent dealers and company-owned locations. Within the U-Haul segment, self-storage revenue increased 13.3% to $76.7 million. Revenue growth was driven by a combination of improved occupancy at existing locations plus the addition of new facilities. Room count grew to 328,000 at the end of the quarter compared to 287,000 at the end of the year-ago period. Average occupancy rate based on room count was 73%, down from 77.4% in the year-ago period. This marks the seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines in the occupancy rate. However, it's up sequentially, as last quarter's rate was 72.1%. DIY-moving and self-storage product and service sales revenue increased 2.1% to $78.9 million, while property management fees grew 2.4% to $6.8 million. These are fees the company collects from managing self-storage units owned by others. Operating income in the U-Haul segment declined 11.3% to $220.5 million. Operating income in the insurance segment dropped 22.3% to $11.4 million. What management had to say Here's what CEO Joe Shoen had to say in the press release: Our opportunity is to continue to better utilize the investments we've made in our rental fleet and self-storage locations to serve more customers. Our base businesses are solid. We need to continue to focus on management. Looking ahead Overall, it was a challenging quarter, with operating income declining about 12% and net income and EPS decreasing about 14%. However, there were some relatively brighter spots: The core U-Haul segment's revenue grew 4.3%, and the average occupancy rate based on room count in the self-storage business ticked up from last quarter. Amerco doesn't provide guidance. And there's just a single Wall Street analyst who provides estimates, making them of little value. 10 stocks we like better than AmercoWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Amerco wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of August 1, 2017Beth McKenna has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Amerco. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.