GE Aerospace raises its 2026 outlook again as orders jump 49% on jet-engine demand

GE Aerospace raised its 2026 forecasts for revenue, profit and cash flow again on Tuesday, Oct. 20, after orders jumped 49% to $19.0 billion and adjusted earnings beat analysts' estimates on strong demand for jet engines and the repair work that keeps them flying.

Orders jump and profit beats forecasts

GE Aerospace said in its third-quarter results on Tuesday, Oct. 20, that orders rose 49% from a year earlier to $19.0 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Most of the gain came from its commercial engine business, where orders climbed 58% to $15.3 billion: orders for services rose 23%, and orders for new engines and other equipment more than tripled.

Adjusted revenue, which strips out GE Aerospace's run-off insurance operations, rose 18% to $13.3 billion. Revenue under generally accepted accounting principles rose 16% to $14.1 billion. Operating profit, the company's adjusted measure, rose 30% to $3.0 billion, and the operating margin widened to 22.5% from 20.3% a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings per share rose 36% to $2.25. Analysts had expected $2.01 a share on revenue of $12.88 billion, according to MarketBeat's consensus figures; Zacks put the earnings estimate at $2.02. MarketBeat said the company had beaten the consensus earnings estimate in each of its previous eight quarters. Earnings per share from continuing operations under accounting rules rose 14% to $2.32.

One measure went the other way. Free cash flow fell 14% to $2.0 billion from $2.4 billion a year earlier, although it was up 13% over the first nine months of the year, at $6.7 billion.

Guidance raised across the board

GE Aerospace raised every part of its 2026 forecast, three months after it last lifted the outlook across the board with its second-quarter results in July. It now expects adjusted revenue to grow about 19% to 20%, up from the high-teens growth it forecast in July, and operating profit of $10.9 billion to $11.0 billion, up from $10.55 billion to $10.75 billion.

It raised its adjusted earnings forecast to $8.00 to $8.10 a share, from $7.65 to $7.85, and expects free cash flow of $9.1 billion to $9.4 billion, up from $8.9 billion to $9.2 billion.

The company also gave an early view of next year. It expects revenue from commercial services, the repair work and spare parts it sells for engines already in service, to grow at a low-double-digit rate in 2027, supported by what it said was a commercial services backlog of more than $170 billion.

"We are raising our 2026 guidance across the board, and we now expect 2027 commercial services to grow low-double-digits supported by our over $170 billion commercial services backlog," Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Culp said in the release.

Where the growth came from

Revenue in the commercial engines and services unit rose 21% to $10.3 billion. Services revenue grew 17%, with revenue from shop visits at GE Aerospace's own facilities up 12% and spare parts revenue up more than 20%. Equipment revenue rose 38% as engine deliveries increased 8%, including a 5% rise in deliveries of the LEAP engine used on Airbus A320neo-family and Boeing 737 MAX jets. The unit's profit rose 21% to $2.9 billion, though its margin slipped 0.1 percentage point to 27.9%, which the company attributed to mix and inflation.

GE Aerospace also shipped GE9X engines, which power Boeing's 777X, during the quarter but said it would not recognize the financial impact of those deliveries until after the engine's midseal certification. It now expects the unit's 2026 operating profit at $10.5 billion to $10.6 billion, up from $10.25 billion to $10.35 billion, citing higher services growth and a smaller GE9X impact.

The defense and propulsion technologies unit grew more slowly. Its orders rose 18% to $4.3 billion and revenue rose 7% to $3.5 billion, while profit rose 8% to $475 million. GE Aerospace kept that unit's 2026 forecast unchanged.

Shares edge higher before the open

GE Aerospace shares closed Monday at $311.84 and were indicated at $316.99, up 1.65%, in premarket trading at 6:33 a.m. ET, according to MarketBeat; Yahoo Finance data showed a similar move. Premarket trading is thin and prices can shift sharply once regular trading begins at 9:30 a.m.

Among recent deals, GE Aerospace pointed to an October agreement with Turkish Airlines for more than 300 LEAP-1B engines and a contract worth up to $2.9 billion to support the F414 engines that power the U.S. Navy's F/A-18 and EA-18G fleets, as well as its pending acquisition of castings maker Consolidated Precision Products.