Booz Allen Beats on Profit With Adjusted EPS of $1.76 and Raises Its Fiscal 2027 Earnings Guide

Booz Allen Hamilton reported fiscal second-quarter results on Friday, Oct. 23, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, with adjusted diluted earnings of $1.76 a share, well above the $1.48 a share analysts expected, net income of $181 million and revenue of $2.78 billion, and raised its fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings guidance to $6.50 to $6.70 a share.

The profit beat was wide. Adjusted diluted earnings were $1.76 a share, up 18.1% from $1.49 a year earlier and 28 cents above the $1.48 a share analysts expected, a gap of about 19% on a TickerGrove calculation. Reported results were more modest: net income was $181 million, or $1.50 a diluted share, up from $175 million, or $1.42 a share, a year earlier, and adjusted net income was $211 million, up 15.3%. Revenue told the softer side of the quarter: $2.78 billion missed the $2.81 billion consensus estimate by about $30 million on a TickerGrove calculation, and revenue excluding billable expenses was $1.96 billion, down 0.8%.

National security carried the quarter; civil shrank again

The customer split explains both the revenue decline and the profit resilience. National security revenue, which combines defense and intelligence work, was $2.08 billion, slightly above $2.06 billion a year earlier, while civil and commercial revenue fell to $702 million from $827 million, a decline of about 15% on a TickerGrove calculation. The company said momentum continued across its national security portfolio and that the civil business performed in line with expectations, a year after it cut thousands of jobs as federal contract reductions hit the civil side and the administration pressed consulting firms to justify their work and propose cost savings. Booz Allen said it is accelerating investment in advanced cyber, agentic and defense technologies. “We are building and scaling our cyber and defense tech products and bringing super intelligence into our nation’s most critical missions to deliver greater value and impact,” Chairman and Chief Executive Horacio Rozanski said.

The earnings guide rose; the revenue guide only narrowed

For fiscal 2027, the company now expects adjusted diluted earnings of $6.50 to $6.70 a share, up from $6.00 to $6.35 — a raise at both ends that also clears the $6.34 a share analysts had expected. The revenue outlook moved differently: the range narrowed to $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion from $11.2 billion to $11.7 billion, lifting the floor and trimming the ceiling rather than raising the range, against an analyst view of $11.42 billion. The company also lifted the low end of its adjusted EBITDA range to $1.26 billion to $1.29 billion and the low end of its free cash flow range to $850 million to $925 million, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 a share, payable Dec. 4 to stockholders of record on Nov. 12.

Backlog grew, headcount shrank, and cash flow eased

Total backlog was $40.9 billion at Sept. 30, up 1.9% from $40.2 billion a year earlier, and the quarterly book-to-bill ratio was 1.5 times, down from 1.7 times a year earlier. Total headcount was about 31,000, down from 32,500 — a smaller workforce is part of how profit rose while revenue fell. Adjusted EBITDA was $313 million, down 3.4%, though the adjusted EBITDA margin on revenue ticked up a tenth of a point to 11.3%. Free cash flow was $263 million, down from $395 million a year earlier, and the company said total capital deployment in the quarter was $965 million.

Shares rose 5% to $82.50 in premarket trading on Friday, Oct. 23. What to watch next is whether national security momentum keeps offsetting the civil decline, whether the narrowed revenue range proves conservative as backlog converts, and whether the leaner cost base keeps adjusted profit growing faster than revenue.