Earnings Roundup: Which Big Companies Beat or Missed This Week

October 27, 2026 | ATN Trade & Finance

It has been a busy earnings week, and the headline numbers don't always tell the full story. Meta beat estimates on revenue and earnings per share but reported the first negative free cash flow in its public history. Tesla's revenue landed roughly in line but its free cash flow figure was one of the most surprising numbers of the season. Netflix beat on operations but cut its ad revenue forecast. Boeing posted another miss. And a cluster of industrials, healthcare companies, and financial data firms reported — mostly positive — as the week closed out. Tomorrow, Microsoft and Alphabet report. Amazon and Intel follow Wednesday. Here is where the major reports stand.

Meta: Revenue and EPS Beat, Obscured by a $9.9 Billion Legal Charge

Meta reported Q3 2026 revenue of $64.6 billion, up 26% year over year and above the roughly $63.3 billion consensus. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $3.83, ahead of the ~$3.57 estimate. Without the extraordinary legal charge, EPS would have been approximately $7.40.

The charge that reshaped the quarter: Meta booked a $9.89 billion settlement with 52 state attorneys general over teen mental health and social media harms. The result was an operating income of $13.0 billion — down 37% year over year and far below the ~$20.9 billion analysts had been modeling — and an operating margin of 20%, versus 40% in the same quarter last year. Free cash flow was negative $2.1 billion, the first negative FCF print since Meta's 2012 IPO. Long-term debt rose to $80.9 billion from $58.7 billion at year-end 2025. The company cut headcount by 15% to 66,775.

The forward guidance was constructive: Q4 revenue is guided to $73–$76 billion (midpoint above the ~$73.6 billion consensus), and full-year operating income is still expected to exceed 2025 excluding the legal charge. But full-year expenses were raised to $175–$179 billion (from $165–$169 billion), and capex guidance was narrowed to $135–$145 billion by raising the low end. Reality Labs losses are projected at $18–$19 billion for the full year, declining to roughly $15 billion in 2027. Family daily active people held at 3.64 billion in September, up 3% year over year. The stock fell 6.98% on the first trading day after the report.

Tesla: In-Line Revenue, Surprising Free Cash Flow

Tesla reported Q3 revenue of $28.05 billion against a $28.34 billion consensus — close enough for the company's supporters to call it in-line, though technically a miss. Non-GAAP EPS was $0.48, a beat against the $0.45 estimate. Operating margin landed at 2.6% versus a 2.5% expectation.

The number that drew the most attention: Tesla reported free cash flow of $1.53 billion for the quarter, against analyst expectations that had been running at roughly negative $4.5 billion. On the product side, the Full Self-Driving Supervised attach rate climbed to more than 75% of new North American deliveries — up nearly 20 percentage points sequentially — and volume production of the Tesla Semi has begun. Cybercab deployment in Austin has reached approximately 2 million cumulative unsupervised miles, marking the first real-scale data point on Tesla's robotaxi program.

Netflix: Beat on Operations, Miss on the Ad Business

Netflix Q3 revenue came in at $12.87 billion, up 11.8% year over year and essentially at the top of its own forecast of $12.86 billion. Operating margin beat Netflix's guidance: 34.6% versus a 33.2% forecast, with the company attributing most of the upside to the timing of content expenses. Diluted EPS was $0.87 against a $0.82 guidance figure.

The issue that sent the stock lower: Netflix trimmed its 2026 ad revenue forecast to approximately $2.7 billion, down from about $3 billion in July guidance, citing a "slightly slower than expected rollout" of ad product capabilities. Advertising is currently about 5% of projected 2026 revenue. The company also cut its full-year free cash flow forecast to approximately $12.0 billion from $12.5 billion, attributing most of the change to a real estate transaction expected to close in Q4. Netflix guided Q4 revenue to $13.44 billion at a 26% operating margin. The company is expanding its ad-supported tier to 15 new countries starting in March 2027.

Boeing: Another Miss, Despite Positive Regulatory Milestones

Boeing reported Q3 2026 results this morning that came in below estimates across both revenue and EPS — a double miss. EPS landed at -$0.34 against a consensus of approximately -$0.20, and revenue also missed. The result is notable because it came just one week after the FAA certified the 737-10 on October 20, the aircraft certification Boeing most needed this year to unlock a 1,500-plus unit order backlog. The full-year EPS consensus sits at -$1.10 on revenue of approximately $97.5 billion, still a significant loss year with gradual improvement expected as production rates recover. Last quarter, free cash flow turned positive at $631 million; management had guided Q3 FCF to a positive "low hundreds of millions." The broader balance sheet carries $45.9 billion in debt with approximately $600 million in quarterly interest expense.

HCA Healthcare: The Quarter's Most Impressive Beat

HCA Healthcare delivered Q3 net income of $1.643 billion and EPS of $6.96, against a consensus estimate of approximately $5.73 — a beat of more than 21%. Revenue rose 9.6% to $19.16 billion. The company raised its full-year 2026 EPS guidance to $27.00–$28.00 and revenue guidance to $75.0–$76.5 billion. The result reflects continued volume strength at HCA's hospital network and resilient private-pay demand.

Sherwin-Williams: Revenue Beat, Margins Disappoint

Sherwin-Williams posted Q3 revenue of $6.86 billion (+7.9% year over year), a beat on the top line. But adjusted diluted EPS of $3.63 came in below the approximately $3.69 consensus, and the stock fell roughly 6% on the day. The company narrowed its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $11.85–$12.15 and guided Q4 net sales to rise a mid-single-digit percentage. The miss underscores the persistent margin pressure in paint and coatings from input cost inflation.

Others: Broad Beats Across Industrials and Financials

Several other companies reporting on October 27 added to a generally positive picture for the broader market: S&P Global posted a double beat on both EPS and revenue. Corning beat on EPS and provided strong Q4 guidance. Freeport-McMoRan beat on EPS, with higher copper and gold prices cited as the key driver. Johnson Controls beat on both lines and raised guidance. SoFi Technologies posted $0.18 EPS against a $0.17 estimate, beat on revenue, and raised full-year guidance — shares rose roughly 6%. PayPal beat on EPS and raised its full-year profit outlook, though revenue came in below estimates. Royal Caribbean beat on earnings but cut its full-year revenue guidance, with the stock roughly flat on the session.

What's Coming

The week's biggest reports are still ahead. Microsoft and Alphabet both report tomorrow, October 28, after market close. Microsoft's fiscal Q1 consensus is $90.75 billion in revenue (up 17%) and EPS of $4.72; analysts are focused on Azure growth, which Microsoft guided to 45%. Alphabet is expected to post $127.83 billion in revenue (up 25%) with particular attention on Google Cloud performance. Amazon and Intel report October 29, with Amazon projected at $202.20 billion (up 12%) and Intel at $16.47 billion (up 21%). Given the AI capital expenditure scrutiny embedded in all four of these reports, the commentary around data center spend and backlog will carry as much weight as the headline numbers.

What this means: The week's mixed signals — Meta's legal charge, Tesla's cash flow flip, Netflix's ad growth stumble, Boeing's continued underperformance — are harder to read than a simple beat-or-miss tally suggests. The companies that beat cleanly (HCA, S&P Global, Freeport, SoFi) did so on genuine operating strength. The ones that beat with asterisks (Meta's revenue beat against a one-time charge, Tesla's FCF beat against a mis-set expectation) leave investors to decide whether the underlying trend or the footnote deserves more weight. The answer tomorrow from Alphabet and Microsoft will set the tone for the rest of the season.

Sources:

Earnings Roundup: Which Big Companies Beat or Missed This Week

Earnings Roundup: Which Big Companies Beat or Missed This Week

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