Textron, Inc. 2026 Q3 Earnings Call

You may begin. Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everyone.

Before we begin, I'd like to mention we'll be discussing future estimates and expectations during our call today. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risk factors, which are detailed in our SEC filings, and also in today's press release. On the call today, we have Lisa Atherton, our Chief Executive Officer, and David Rosenberg, our Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings call presentation can be found in the investor relations section of our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Lisa.

Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone. Textron delivered a strong quarter, with $3.8 billion of revenues and $1.76 in adjusted EPS, as well as $418 million of manufacturing cash flow before pension contributions. Higher jet deliveries at Textron Aviation and program execution at Textron Systems drove double-digit revenue growth at each of these segments. Throughout the quarter, Bell continued to make significant operational progress on the MV-75 program. We continue to advance our separation process for the industrial segment and remain on track to hit our timeline. Given our performance year to date and our expectations for the balance of the year, we are increasing our outlook for both adjusted EPS and manufacturing cash flow. Now I'll go into the segment details. During the quarter, Bell's primary focus was on operational continuity of the MV-75 program.

The US Army successfully received congressional approval for its ATR request related to the MV-75 Cheyenne program, mitigating the risks discussed on our last earnings call related to the government fiscal year 2026 funding. From an operational perspective, the program has made significant progress on the aircraft build. Recent milestones for Bell and Team Cheyenne have included the completion of three wings in Amarillo, receipt of the first nacelles, and completing the first wing and nacelle assembly process, completing the first fuselage at our Wichita Assembly Center, which is expected to be mated with the wing assembly in the fourth quarter, and advancing several critical components into test, such as the first gearboxes. These gearboxes are part of the overall drive system, which was assembled in Bell's new MV-75 Drive System test lab in Grand Prairie, Texas.

We are very excited about the progress made on the program, as the MV-75 remains a top priority for the U.S. military. Modern warfare is increasing the speed, complexity, and lethality of the battlefield, making the ability to maneuver more important than ever. The MV-75 will fundamentally transform how the Army moves and projects combat power in that environment. In other areas of Bell's military business, Bell was awarded a contract for structural and power upgrades to the H-1 fleet under the SPINE program, an important modernization program as H-1s are essential to maintaining attack, strike, and utility capabilities within the Marine Corps. Operationally, Bell continues to focus on initiatives to strengthen the supply chain and improve production efficiency and output, including our ongoing certification of new suppliers and dual sourcing of critical raw materials needed to support gearboxes and rotor blades.

This includes castings, rotor blade extrusions, and various types of aerospace steel alloys. Selective capacity for our problematic assemblies to relieve suppliers and provide on-time delivery has also progressed. These are things like chemical processing, paint operations, and complex assemblies. We continue our focus on automation throughout the product lines. At Aviation, we welcomed Brian Rohloff as President and CEO of the business. Brian is a proven leader with over 29 years of experience at Textron Aviation who brings a deep understanding of our products, our customers, and our industry. Brian has held numerous positions at the company, spanning customer support, sales, supply chain, and quality throughout his career. Most recently, he led our customer support organization. Moving over to the business, Textron Aviation revenues were up $201 million or 14% compared to last year's third quarter, reflecting higher revenue for both aircraft and aftermarket.

We delivered 51 jets and 32 commercial turboprops in the quarter, compared to 42 jets and 39 commercial turboprops in last year's third quarter. Textron Aviation's fleet utilization remains strong, contributing to aftermarket revenue growth of 10% compared to last year's third quarter. Demand across both jets and turboprops continued to be strong, with Aviation experiencing its highest Q3 orders since 2023. On the operational front at Aviation, our focus remains on improving productivity and converting strong customer demand into profitable growth. Moving forward, our priorities are clear as we make investments to drive productivity and profitability. Those investments in fabrication are focused on increasing capacity to improve parts availability on our production lines. This includes adding capacity in areas like machining, sheet metal, and landing gear. Within the assembly, our investments are focused on increasing automation and manufacturing technologies.

This includes expanding our wing cell automation for some of our light jets. Our tooling investment will drive workflow productivity and support new programs such as the Gen3s and our existing platforms such as the King Air. A key project here relates to a significant market opportunity we have on the King Air. We are surging the digitization efforts of this platform, which will enable us to modernize the tooling and processes to build the aircraft more efficiently. We have significantly accelerated this phase of the effort, positioning us to begin capturing incremental benefits sooner. Like Bell, we are dual sourcing and insourcing challenging suppliers to improve quality, increase throughput, and offset inflation. An example here is dual sourcing spars, which have been a gating item in our production.

In terms of product development efforts at Aviation, we continue to make progress on the Denali with over 4,200 flight test hours to date. Our three Gen3 light jet programs are also advancing towards certification, with more than a combined 1,200 flight test hours and the rollout of the first production CJ4 Gen3 as the aircraft advances toward entry into service. Each aircraft features Garmin Emergency Autoland, while the CJ4 Gen3 also includes a significant avionics upgrade to the Garmin G3000 PRIME. We continue to see significant demand for the SkyCourier program across freight, passenger, combi, and special mission applications, and have now introduced the SkyCourier UX concept aircraft, combining the proven SkyCourier platform with Merlin's aircraft-agnostic software solution for autonomous aviation.

During the quarter, we celebrated two significant Citation milestones: the rollout of the 500th Citation Latitude, the world's best-selling mid-size business jet, and the 500th delivery of the Citation CJ4 series, as we prepare for the next chapter of that platform with the upcoming CJ4 Gen3. Moving over to Systems, the segment continued its outstanding performance for the year with revenue growth of 16% in the quarter, driven by execution across its programs. In the quarter, we received a $230 million contract modification for two additional Ship-to-Shore Connector craft. Ship-to-Shore has now reached its full rate production level of four craft per year with significant runway ahead as we have delivered 18 units out of a 73-unit program of record. ATAC also continues to execute well, driven by new contract wins and strong performance in its fleet exercise and adversary air operations.

Our Land business has several platforms contributing to the segment. The FMS program for the MSFV is ramping with planned deliveries of 65 units to Ukraine over the next three years. The Marine Corps' ARV program is scaling pre-production development efforts as we prepare for delivery of 16 units in 2028. The Army's XM30, where we are partnered with American Rheinmetall, is in the process of delivering 10 prototypes to the US Army. At Industrial, our focus remains on supporting our customers, employees, and business partners while we continue to work toward a successful separation of the segment. During the quarter, TSV introduced its third generation of Samsung's battery technology, demonstrating the continued advancement of the E-Z-GO franchise. Kautex has advanced its new technologies throughout the year.

It is currently operating a Pentatonic line in its Windsor, Canada, facility while preparing to open new lines in Detroit and the Czech Republic to support new business. It is also ramping production on its Allegro offering to support the rollout of a robotaxi operator. Overall, across Textron, I am incredibly encouraged by the progress we are making. The underlying demand environment remains favorable, our execution initiatives are beginning to gain traction, and we continue to advance strategic programs and technologies that we believe will create long-term value for our shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to David.

Thank you, Lisa, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 11 of the earnings presentation. Revenues in the quarter of $3.8 billion were up 4%, or $149 million from last year's third quarter. Segment profit in the quarter was $355 million, compared to $360 million in the third quarter of 2025. During this year's third quarter, adjusted EPS was $1.76 per share, compared to $1.55 per share in last year's third quarter. Manufacturing cash flow before pension contributions totaled $418 million, up from $281 million in last year's third quarter. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 2.9 million shares, returning $239 million in cash to shareholders. Now let's review how each of the segments contributed, starting with Textron Aviation.