Earnings Roundup: Which Big Companies Beat or Missed This Week

October 28, 2026 | ATN Trade & Finance

The third-quarter 2026 earnings season is hitting its peak week, with results from Microsoft, Alphabet, Visa, Boeing, Coca-Cola, and several others already in hand. Amazon, Intel, and Mastercard report Thursday; Exxon Mobil reports Friday. Here is the scorecard on what has landed so far.

Microsoft: Beat on Revenue and Earnings, Azure Leads

Microsoft reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 (calendar Q3 2026) results after Tuesday's close with revenue of $92.28 billion, up 18.8% year over year, beating the $90.64 billion consensus by approximately 1.8%. EPS came in at $4.92, about 4.3% above the $4.72 estimate. Azure cloud revenue grew 48% year over year — again ahead of expectations, though Microsoft did not break out an absolute dollar figure. Gross margin was 67.8%, slightly below the 69% reported a year ago, while operating margin held at 49.8%. Free cash flow margin contracted to 20.2% from 33%, a function of the capital spending ramp tied to AI infrastructure buildout. Shares rose approximately 3.5% in after-hours trading to around $549, pushing market capitalization to roughly $3.95 trillion.

The Azure number is the one the market cares about most, and 48% growth against increasingly difficult comparisons gives Microsoft credibility in the AI infrastructure race. The free cash flow compression is the concern to watch: the company is spending heavily to sustain that growth, and the margin trajectory will determine whether the spending is producing durable returns or just renting momentum.

Alphabet: Cloud Doubles, But a Massive Investment Loss Sinks the Headline Number

Alphabet reported Q3 2026 results after Tuesday's close and delivered a split verdict that sent shares down sharply in after-hours trading. Total revenue was $127.6 billion, up 25% from $102.3 billion — a strong headline that was not enough to satisfy expectations. EPS came in at $2.12, well below the prior year's $2.87 and below analyst estimates. The stock fell approximately 8.9% after hours to around $293, after closing regular trading up 1.6% at $321.89.

The earnings miss is almost entirely explained by a single line: Alphabet booked an $8.7 billion loss on equity securities in Q3 2026, reversing a $10.7 billion gain in Q3 2025. That swing accounts for roughly $19 billion in pre-tax income deterioration. Operating performance, by contrast, was strong: operating income rose to $40.58 billion from $31.23 billion, with operating margin at approximately 31.8%. Google Cloud was the standout — revenue grew 103% year over year to $30.71 billion, with Cloud operating income of $11.12 billion versus $3.59 billion a year ago. Search revenue grew 12% to $63.35 billion. YouTube ad revenue rose to $11.21 billion from $10.26 billion. Net income fell to $26.17 billion from $34.98 billion on the investment loss.

For investors, the question is whether the after-hours selloff is rational. The investment loss is non-cash and volatile — not a sign of operational deterioration. The 103% Cloud growth is extraordinary. But an EPS miss is an EPS miss, and at Alphabet's scale, the market's reflex reaction to a headline miss tends to punish the stock before the longer-form analysis takes hold.

Visa: Fiscal Q4 Beat, Dividend Up 16%, BioCatch Deal Pending

Visa reported fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 results (quarter ended September 30) on Monday, posting net revenue of $12.1 billion, up 13% year over year. Non-GAAP EPS was $3.48, up 17%. Payments volume grew 9% in constant dollars; cross-border volume — the highest-margin segment and a key indicator of international travel and commerce — rose 14% excluding intra-Europe transactions. Processed transactions were 74.2 billion, up 10%. The quarterly dividend was raised 16% to $0.780 per share, and the company completed $5.2 billion in share repurchases and dividends during the quarter. Visa also announced a pending $2.4 billion cash acquisition of BioCatch, a behavioral biometrics firm focused on fraud detection, expected to close by the end of fiscal second quarter 2027. The quarter included a $469 million litigation provision for the ongoing interchange MDL case.

The cross-border volume growth rate is the metric most relevant to ATN's trade-focused readership: 14% growth means international spending on Visa's network is accelerating, consistent with the strong travel and cross-border commerce trends that have been running through most of 2026. The BioCatch acquisition signals that Visa is investing in fraud prevention infrastructure as cross-border digital payments volumes scale.

Boeing: Miss on Both Lines, $700 Million 777X Charge, Record Backlog

Boeing reported Q3 2026 results on Monday and missed on both revenue and earnings. Revenue came in at $24.1 billion against the $24.3 billion consensus. The adjusted loss per share was $0.34, worse than the $0.20 loss estimate. The commercial airplane division's operating margin fell to negative 6.5%, weighed down by ongoing supply chain and production costs and a $700 million charge on the 777X widebody program. On the positive side, the company reported generating positive cash flow in the quarter — a meaningful milestone in the multi-quarter turnaround effort — and its backlog reached a record $745 billion.

Boeing's results reflect a company still in the cost-normalization phase of a long recovery. The 777X charge is the third or fourth of its kind on that program and continues to signal that the widebody schedule is not yet stable. The cash generation is the genuinely encouraging signal; production rates in the 737 MAX program have been the key variable, and the narrative around supply chain normalization is improving.

Coca-Cola: Beat on Volume, Raised Outlook

Coca-Cola beat expectations on both lines, posting revenue of $13.4 billion against a $12.9 billion estimate, with adjusted EPS of $0.91 versus the $0.88 consensus. Unit case volume grew approximately 5%, above the 3% expected, despite some softening in North American demand. Management raised its earnings outlook for the full year. The company traded lower early despite the beat — an indication that the valuation premium leaves little room for guidance that merely meets expectations. For supply chain and consumer goods readers, the volume number is the relevant signal: global beverage volume growing at 5% year over year suggests consumer spending outside North America is holding up better than macro indicators might imply.

SoFi: Beat and Raised Guidance

SoFi Technologies beat on both revenue and earnings, posting $1.39 billion in revenue against a $1.26 billion estimate and adjusted EPS of $0.18 versus a $0.17 estimate. Management raised full-year 2026 guidance and issued 2027 EPS guidance of $0.90, above the Street's $0.82 estimate. Shares surged approximately 11% on the session. The SoFi result is a data point on digital-native financial services demand: the company's lending and banking platform continues to attract borrowers and depositors despite an elevated interest rate environment, suggesting that credit-qualified consumers are still accessing credit actively.

Whirlpool: Miss on Revenue, Announcing a 7% Price Increase

Whirlpool reported revenue of $3.68 billion, missing the $3.91 billion estimate, citing inflation and softer North American appliance demand. The adjusted loss was $0.21 per share versus an expected loss of $0.76 per share — so while the top line disappointed, cost management produced a better-than-expected loss on the bottom line. The headline item for supply chain readers: Whirlpool announced a third 2026 price increase, a 7% hike effective in the fourth quarter. Three price increases in a single year in a major appliance manufacturer reflects persistent input cost pressure — consistent with the Manufacturing PMI's October reading, which flagged the fastest input cost inflation since November 2022.

Boeing's Ripple: JetBlue Also Stumbles

JetBlue missed on both revenue ($2.81 billion versus $2.83 billion estimate) and earnings (a loss of $0.60 per share versus an expected loss of $0.54). However, revenue rose 21% year over year, and the airline said it offset more fuel cost increases than anticipated. Shares rose more than 14% premarket on the revenue growth narrative — the loss was narrower than feared on a year-over-year basis, and the fuel offset language was taken positively. JetBlue's trajectory is relevant for logistics cost observers: airline freight and passenger demand are both tied to the same consumer and industrial spending signals, and JetBlue's revenue growth confirms that travel demand has not yet softened materially despite higher fuel prices.

Still to Come: Amazon, Intel, Mastercard, Exxon

Amazon reports Thursday after market close, with consensus revenue of approximately $202.1 billion and EPS estimates of $1.96 to $2.01. AWS cloud growth is projected at roughly 41%, and the market is pricing a potential 7% move in the stock on the print. Intel also reports Thursday, with analysts projecting approximately 21% revenue growth, with particular attention on the company's 18A process node progress and foundry business trajectory. Mastercard reports Thursday as well. Exxon Mobil reports Friday, with the oil price picture — Brent near $115, WTI near $101 — providing a generally supportive backdrop for upstream earnings, though refining margins and downstream operations will be the more nuanced story.

What this means: The divergence between Microsoft and Alphabet this week is instructive: both are growing at similar rates in their core cloud businesses, but a non-operating item (an $8.7 billion equity investment loss) produced a dramatically different headline earnings outcome. For investors evaluating technology earnings, separating operating performance from investment portfolio volatility matters more than usual in an environment where large-cap technology companies hold substantial equity positions in AI and cloud startups. The Whirlpool price increase and Boeing's ongoing production challenges are both supply-side cost signals that reinforce the manufacturing PMI's input cost warnings. And Visa's 14% cross-border volume growth in a quarter when Middle Eastern trade routes remain disrupted is a reminder that commerce is rerouting, not contracting — a meaningful distinction for anyone modeling 2027 trade flows.

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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