Industrial conglomerate GE Aerospace (NYSE: GE) reported Q3 2026 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations, with sales up 24.9% year on year to $14.12 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $2.25 per share was 12% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
Is now the time to buy GE Aerospace? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free.
GE Aerospace (GE) Q3 2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $14.12 billion vs analyst estimates of $12.86 billion (24.9% year-on-year growth, 9.8% beat)
- Adjusted EPS: $2.25 vs analyst estimates of $2.01 (12% beat)
- Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $8.05 at the midpoint, a 3.9% increase
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 14.5%, down from 20.9% in the same quarter last year
- Market Capitalization: $323 billion
Company Overview
One of the original 12 companies on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, General Electric (NYSE: GE) is a multinational conglomerate providing technologies for various sectors including aviation, power, renewable energy, and healthcare.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Luckily, GE Aerospace’s sales grew at an incredible 19% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. Its growth surpassed the average industrials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers, a great starting point for our analysis.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. GE Aerospace’s annualized revenue growth of 21.9% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was strong and recently accelerated. 
This quarter, GE Aerospace reported robust year-on-year revenue growth of 24.9%, and its $14.12 billion of revenue topped Wall Street estimates by 9.8%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 8.5% over the next 12 months, a deceleration versus the last two years. We still think its growth trajectory is satisfactory given its scale and indicates the market is baking in success for its products and services.
ONE MORE THING: 3 Hidden Platforms Growing 3X Faster than Amazon, Google, and PayPal. Amazon, Google, and Meta all followed the same playbook: Dominate an ignored market. Build an unbeatable moat. Scale until you’re unstoppable.
These three platforms are running that exact playbook right now. The early investors in Amazon made fortunes. The early investors in these could do the same. Get All 3 Stocks Here for FREE.
Operating Margin
Operating margin is one of the best measures of profitability because it tells us how much money a company takes home after procuring and manufacturing its products, marketing and selling those products, and most importantly, keeping them relevant through research and development.
GE Aerospace’s operating margin has more or less stayed the same over the last 12 months , averaging 18.6% over the last five years. This profitability was elite for an industrials business thanks to its efficient cost structure and economies of scale. This was particularly impressive because of its low gross margin, which is mostly a factor of what it sells and takes huge shifts to move meaningfully. Companies have more control over their operating margins, and it’s a show of well-managed operations if they’re high when gross margins are low.
Analyzing the trend in its profitability, GE Aerospace’s operating margin might have fluctuated slightly but has generally stayed the same over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability.
Earnings Per Share
Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth — for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.
GE Aerospace’s EPS grew at 33% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 19% annualized revenue growth. However, we take this with a grain of salt because its operating margin didn’t improve and it didn’t repurchase its shares, meaning the delta came from reduced interest expenses or taxes.
Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.
For GE Aerospace, its two-year annual EPS growth of 35.4% was higher than its five-year trend. We love it when earnings growth accelerates, especially when it accelerates off an already high base.
In Q3, GE Aerospace reported adjusted EPS of $2.25, up from $1.66 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects GE Aerospace’s full-year EPS to grow 14.2% from $7.70 to $8.79.
Key Takeaways from GE Aerospace’s Q3 Results
We were impressed by how significantly GE Aerospace blew past analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also glad its full-year EPS guidance exceeded Wall Street’s estimates. Zooming out, we think this was a good print with some key areas of upside. The stock remained flat at $311.10 immediately following the results.
Indeed, GE Aerospace had a rock-solid quarterly earnings result, but is this stock a good investment here? We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
