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RTX Q1 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y

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Key Takeaways

  • RTX reported Q1 EPS of $1.78, beating estimates by 17% and rising 21% year over year.
  • RTX revenues grew 8.7% to $22.08B, driven by broad growth and a $271B backlog.
  • RTX raised 2026 sales and EPS outlook, citing strong defense demand and solid execution.

RTX Corporation’s (RTX - Free Report) first-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.78 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.52 by 17%. The bottom line improved 21.1% from the year-ago quarter’s level of $1.47.

RTX’s Total Revenues

Quarterly revenues came in at $22.08 billion, up 8.7% from $20.31 billion in the year-ago period. Sales also beat the consensus mark of $21.56 billion by 2.43%, supported by broad-based organic growth and a company backlog that stood at $271 billion.

 

RTX Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

RTX Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

RTX Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | RTX Corporation Quote

RTX’s Operational Performance

Total costs and expenses increased nearly 7.2% year over year to $19.59 billion in the quarter. The company generated an adjusted operating profit of $2.56 billion compared with $2.04 billion in the prior-year quarter.

RTX posted an interest expense of $390 million compared with $443 million in the prior-year period.

Demand visibility remained a key theme. RTX ended the quarter with total backlog of $271 billion, including $162 billion tied to commercial programs and $109 billion tied to defense. Within Raytheon, backlog totaled $74 billion, and the segment’s first-quarter book-to-bill was 0.96, with a rolling 12-month book-to-bill of 1.48. The update reinforced the company’s view that durable end-market demand is supporting production ramps across the portfolio.

RTX’s Segmental Performance

Collins Aerospace: Sales in this segment totaled $7.6 billion, up 5% year over year.  This improvement was driven by a 15% increase in commercial OE, a 7% increase in commercial aftermarket, and a 9% increase in defense.

Pratt & Whitney: This segment’s sales totaled $8.17 billion, reflecting an improvement of 11% from the year-ago quarter’s reported number. Sales growth was driven by a 19% increase in commercial aftermarket and a 7% increase in military, partially offset by a 1% decrease in commercial OE. 

Raytheon: This segment recorded sales of $6.95 billion, up 10% year over year. This increase was driven by higher volume on land and air defense systems, including Patriot and GEM-T, as well as higher volume on naval munitions programs.

RTX’s Financial Update

RTX had cash and cash equivalents of $6.82 billion as of March 31, 2026, compared with $7.44 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025.

The long-term debt totaled $32.97 billion as of March 31, 2026, compared with $34.29 billion as of Dec. 31, 2025.

Operating cash flow totaled $1.86 billion, while capital expenditures were $0.55 billion, resulting in free cash flow of $1.31 billion. 

The balance sheet profile remains important as RTX continues investing in capacity expansions and higher output across its aerospace and defense operations.

RTX Lifted 2026 Sales & Earnings Outlook

Following the first-quarter performance, RTX raised its full-year 2026 outlook for adjusted sales and adjusted earnings while maintaining its free cash flow expectations. The company now expects adjusted sales of $92.5-$93.5 billion, up from its prior range of $92.0-$93.0 billion. It continues to project organic sales growth of 5%-6% for the year.

RTX also increased its adjusted earnings outlook to $6.70-$6.90 per share from $6.60-$6.80 previously, while reaffirming free cash flow expectations of $8.25-$8.75 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 EPS is pegged at $6.80, which is in line with the midpoint of the company’s newly guided range.

RTX’s Zacks Rank

The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Upcoming Defense Releases

General Dynamics (GD - Free Report) is slated to report first-quarter results on April 29, before market open. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $3.71 per share, which indicates a year-over-year increase of 1.4%. 

GD’s long-term (three to five years) earnings growth rate is 9.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter sales is pegged at $12.73 billion, which indicates a year-over-year increase of 4.2%. 

Textron (TXT - Free Report) is slated to report first-quarter results on April 30, before market open. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $1.32 per share, indicating year-over-year growth of 3.1%.

TXT’s long-term earnings growth rate is 10.14%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter sales is pinned at $3.52 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 6.5%.

L3Harris Technologies (LHX - Free Report) is slated to report first-quarter results on April 30, before market open. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $2.57 per share.

LHX’s long-term earnings growth rate is 17.17%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter sales is pinned at $5.42 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 5.7%.
 

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