Latest earnings analyses

NextEra Energy's third quarter was a clean beat on the number management steers by: adjusted EPS of $1.24 came in ahead of the $1.188 consensus, up 9.7% from a year ago. Revenue of $8.09 billion rose just 1.6%, and GAAP EPS of $2.28 is flattered by hedging gains rather than operations. Read the quarter through adjusted earnings and the backlog, not the headline GAAP figure.

AT&T's third quarter looked weak at the bottom line and strong underneath: revenue rose 5.3% to $32.32 billion and adjusted EPS of $0.65 topped the $0.6106 consensus, while a $2.6 billion non-cash impairment on the Mexico wireless business dragged GAAP EPS to $0.12. Read the adjusted figures for the underlying business and the GAAP figures for what the exit from Mexico costs.

Moody's grew revenue just 1.0% in Q3 2026, and adjusted EPS of $4.14 came in below the $4.3067 consensus, so this is not a beat-and-raise quarter — guidance was only reaffirmed. The offset is a durable recurring base: 64.3% of revenue recurs and MA ARR rose 8.0%. Read it as steady, not accelerating.

United Rentals delivered record third-quarter 2026 results and raised full-year revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance. The headline revenue figure in the data set is flagged as a mismatch, so this analysis anchors on the press release's $4.893 billion total revenue and $920 million net income. Read the scorecard as a demand-and-margin story: rental revenue growth, fleet productivity and cost efficiencies drove profit, while the balance sheet carries $13.064 billion of long-term debt.

CSX beat on the top and bottom line: revenue of $4.02 billion rose 12.0% and EPS of $0.57 cleared the $0.54 consensus, with operating margin at 39.1%. Read the quarter against last year's adjusted base, not the reported one — a $164 million goodwill impairment flattered the headline growth rates. The rest of this note walks through revenue, earnings, missing guidance and the balance sheet.

Elevance beat on the bottom line and raised its 2026 outlook, but the quarter's profit leaned on investment income as much as on insurance operations. GAAP EPS of $6.27 topped the $4.73 consensus, and adjusted EPS rose to $6.99 from $6.03. Read the rest with that split in mind: Carelon carried the operating gain while Health Benefits margin thinned to 1.0%.

Wabtec beat on the bottom line and lifted full-year adjusted EPS guidance, with gross margin up 2.6 points to 37.3% and a $31.44 billion backlog. The catch is that roughly half the sales increase came from acquisitions and part of the EPS beat came from currency, not operations. Read the scorecard for what repeatable demand looks like, and the balance sheet for what the deals cost.

Danaher beat on the numbers management controls: adjusted EPS of $2.11 topped the $1.9359 consensus, revenue rose 8.5%, and free cash flow jumped 19.0% to $1.63 billion. The catch is that core growth was only 3.0%, with respiratory testing a 2.5-point headwind and acquisitions and divestitures subtracting 6.5 points. Read this quarter as a margin-and-cash story, not a demand story.

Capital One earned $3.5 billion, or $5.61 a share, in Q3 2026 — a hair above the $5.5584 consensus — while adjusted EPS of $6.69 cleared it by a fifth. The catch: $1.08 of that gap is add-backs for acquisition amortization and integration costs. Read the GAAP line for the real trend and the adjusted line for management's version of the underlying bank.

KeyCorp beat the $0.47 consensus by $0.04 a share, and revenue hit a record $2.04 billion. The engine was net interest income: a 2.95% margin plus $3.6 billion of sequential deposit growth. Credit improved too, with charge-offs at 0.32% of loans. Two soft spots — a thinner CET1 ratio and a wider securities loss inside equity — explain why the quality of this beat deserves scrutiny.

Steel Dynamics' third quarter 2026 was a margin quarter, not just a volume quarter: sales rose 34.8% to $6.51 billion, gross margin jumped to 19.7% from 15.7%, and net income nearly doubled to $756 million. EPS of $5.26 came in below the $5.52 consensus, the one visible blemish. Read the quarter as price plus scrap-cost relief flowing almost straight to the bottom line, with aluminum still a drag.

Hasbro's third quarter beat on every line that matters: revenue rose 15.0% to $1.60 billion, GAAP EPS of $2.77 came in well above the $1.88 consensus, and management raised full-year guidance while doubling the buyback target. Read the beat with one hand on the tariff refunds — roughly $55 million of profit was a one-off. Strip that out and the operating improvement is still real, just smaller.

The quarter was solid rather than spectacular; the story is the nine-month record. Chubb earned $7.66 per share in core operating income, 9.3% above the $7.011 consensus, while GAAP net income of $2.84 billion rose just 1.5%. Read it against an unusually light catastrophe quarter a year ago: the current accident year combined ratio excluding catastrophes was 82.6%, and nine-month core operating income of $8.60 billion was up 21.0%.

Halliburton beat on the bottom line while revenue stood still: adjusted EPS of $0.60 topped the $0.5899 consensus, and revenue of $5.70 billion was flat against the second quarter. The quality is mixed — GAAP profit fell to $0.50 a share on a $107 million severance charge, and free cash flow was only $156 million. Management's 2027 margin target is the real story.

Synchrony beat the $2.45 consensus at $2.68 a share, yet net income fell 17% to $892 million because a year-earlier reserve release flattered the comparison. Revenue of $4.91 billion grew just 1.4%, so the quarter is really two stories: credit measurably improved while the bottom line shrank. Read the EPS beat and the earnings decline together — neither one alone tells you what changed.

SpaceX posted a breakout quarter on paper: revenue of $14.58 billion, up 161.0%, and net income of $4.40 billion against a $0.14 consensus EPS estimate. The catch sits below the profit line — capex of $19.59 billion pushed free cash flow to -$9.96 billion. Read the scorecard for the operating turn, then the balance sheet for how it was funded.

Intuitive beat on the numbers that repeat: revenue rose 22.0% to $3.05 billion, procedures grew 15%, and non-GAAP EPS of $3.00 topped the $2.6954 consensus. GAAP EPS of $1.49 looks ugly only because a $450 million antitrust settlement landed in the quarter. Read the non-GAAP line for the underlying business, and the cash flow line for what it funds.

United's quarter was a demand story, not a profit story. Revenue jumped 17.4% to a record $17.875 billion, yet adjusted EPS of $2.54 came in below the $2.6127 consensus and fell 8.6% year over year. The gap between GAAP EPS of $3.14 and adjusted $2.54 is $213 million of aircraft sale gains, and the villain is a 61.6% fuel jump.

This was a margin quarter, not a growth quarter: Netflix earned $0.87 a share against a $0.8388 consensus, helped by operating margin jumping to 34.6%. Revenue of $12.87 billion matched management's own forecast but grew only 12.0%. Read the scorecard for the beat, the guidance section for the deceleration, and the cash-flow discussion for the trimmed $12.0 billion free-cash-flow target.

GM's third quarter was its strongest of the year: net income more than doubled to $3.34 billion and adjusted operating profit rose 21.6% to $4.11 billion. But the company's own full-year range implies a fourth quarter well below this pace. Read the quarter as a solid operating print, and the guidance as management telling you the back half flatters the trend.

RTX beat on adjusted EPS ($2.26 versus $1.79 consensus) and raised full-year adjusted sales, EPS and free cash flow guidance on 12.0% organic growth and a record $340 billion backlog. The caveat: $0.25 of the EPS beat and roughly $0.3 billion of operating cash flow came from IEEPA cost recovery, and third-quarter free cash flow fell 47.0% year over year. Read the scorecard for growth, then the balance sheet for cash quality.

Equifax delivered a clean quarter — $1.6925 billion of revenue, up 10.0%, and adjusted EPS of $2.26 — then trimmed full-year revenue guidance because the U.S. mortgage market weakened late in the period. Read the scorecard as two stories running at once: a diversified data business compounding at high single digits, and a mortgage-linked slice management no longer expects to recover in 2026.

Northrop Grumman beat the $7.253 consensus EPS with $7.89 and lifted full-year guidance across sales, segment income, EPS and free cash flow, so the quarter reads bullish on demand. Note what did the work, though: a 13.4% tax rate, a larger pension credit and a 1.5x book-to-bill — not a fattening operating margin, which slipped to 11.4%. Read the scorecard for growth, then guidance, then cash.

MSCI's Q3 FY2026 was a strong revenue quarter with a small earnings blemish: revenue rose 12.4% to $892.0 million, organic growth was 12.3%, and adjusted EPS of $5.11 came in just below the $5.1201 consensus. Read the quarter through the mix - recurring subscriptions and fast-growing asset-based fees - and through unchanged full-year cash-flow guidance, not the one-cent EPS miss.

3M's Q3 2026 adjusted EPS of $2.50 came in above the $2.41 consensus and rose 12% year on year, and management raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $9.10–$9.15. GAAP EPS of $2.63 looks even better but carries a $0.60 gain on the Solventum stake. Cash is the weak spot: operating cash flow was $0.5 billion after heavy litigation payments.

Genuine Parts delivered a solid quarter rather than a spectacular one: sales rose 4.2% to $6.52 billion and gross margin widened to 38.1%, yet GAAP EPS stayed flat at $1.62 while North America Automotive profit fell. The read-across is that cost control and mix are working while the largest segment stalls. View: Neutral.

GE Aerospace closed FY2026 Q3 with $14.12 billion of revenue, up 16.0%, and raised full-year guidance on every line. The catch is the quality of the beat: adjusted EPS rose 36.0% while GAAP profit margin slipped and quarterly free cash flow fell 14.0%. Read the scorecard as demand-led growth with thinner conversion, not a clean sweep.

Fifth Third's third quarter shows the Comerica deal adding scale but not yet per-share earnings: revenue rose 42.5% to $3.28 billion and net income climbed 33.4% to $866 million, while diluted EPS of $0.90 was flat against last year's $0.91 because the share count is 36.7% larger. Adjusted EPS of $1.13 beat the $0.9637 consensus. Read the gap between the two EPS lines, and the deposit line, before the headline.

W. R. Berkley's third quarter was a solid underwriting quarter wrapped in a softer headline. Operating earnings per share of $1.17 came in just above the $1.1628 consensus and rose 6.4% from a year ago, yet GAAP net income fell 12.7% to $446.0 million because investment results flipped to a loss. Read the operating line, not the GAAP line.

Truist's third quarter of 2026 looks ugly at the top and fine underneath. Revenue fell to $3.75 billion and GAAP EPS to $0.56, but $1.45 billion of securities losses and RAC loan-sale charges did the damage; adjusted EPS of $1.16 beat the $1.1183 consensus. Read the GAAP lines as a deliberate balance-sheet reset, and the adjusted lines as the run-rate business.