Revenue and margins rose together through the first nine months of 2026
GE Vernova's quarterly filings for 2026 show a company whose top line and operating profit both accelerated. In its 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, filed October 28, 2026, the company reported third-quarter revenue of $12.6 billion. Reported revenue was $9.3 billion in the first quarter and $11.1 billion in the second, so the first nine months of 2026 total about $33.1 billion. That is not a flat line. It is a steady climb that has widened each quarter against the prior year's comparable periods.
Against the same quarters of 2025, reported revenue of $8.0 billion, $9.1 billion and $10.0 billion, the 2026 quarters imply year-over-year growth of roughly 16%, 22% and 27%, respectively. Those growth rates are derived from the reported quarterly figures rather than taken from a company-stated number.
| 2026 quarter | Revenue ($M) | Operating income ($M) | Operating margin (derived) | Gross margin (derived) | Net income ($M) | Diluted weighted shares (M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | 9,339 | 179 | 1.9% | 19.1% | 4,745 | 272 |
| Q2 2026 | 11,104 | 653 | 5.9% | 21.3% | 668 | 270 |
| Q3 2026 | 12,642 | 1,394 | 11.0% | 24.6% | 1,291 | 268 |
Operating income is compounding faster than sales
Operating income is where the story is most pronounced. The company reported $179 million of operating income in the first quarter of 2026, $653 million in the second and $1.39 billion in the third. Against the 2025 quarters of $43 million, $378 million and $366 million, the third-quarter result more than tripled the prior-year level on about 27% more revenue.
The margin path is steep but starts from a low base. Operating margin, derived from reported figures, moved from about 1.9% in the first quarter to 5.9% in the second and 11.0% in the third. Gross profit tells a similar story: gross margin, also derived, rose from about 19% to about 25% over the same three quarters. Reported selling, general and administrative expense was broadly stable at $1.30 billion, $1.37 billion and $1.35 billion, and research and development rose from $304 million to $358 million. That pattern points to gross-margin improvement, rather than cost cutting, as the main driver of the operating gains. The company's 10-Q commentary is the place to confirm the reasons behind the gross-margin move, which this article does not attribute.
Net income does not track operating income this year
Net income is the least clean line in the 2026 record. The company reported first-quarter net income of $4.75 billion, far above that quarter's $179 million of operating income. The gap is explained by a non-operating line of $4.76 billion in the company's reported first-quarter figures. The company did not disclose, in the figures available for this review, what that item is, so this article does not attribute it to a cause.
Second-quarter net income was $668 million and third-quarter net income was $1.29 billion. In the third quarter, reported pre-tax income of $1.78 billion exceeded operating income of $1.39 billion, and income tax expense was $493 million, an effective rate of roughly 28% derived from those figures. Other non-operating income of $105 million and equity-method income of $31 million account for only part of the difference between operating and pre-tax income; the company did not disclose a breakdown of the remainder in these figures. The nine-month net income total of about $6.7 billion is therefore heavily weighted by the first quarter. Investors comparing quarters should separate operating earnings from that one-time-looking first-quarter item.
A slowly shrinking share count
Diluted weighted-average shares fell from 272 million in the first quarter of 2026 to 270 million in the second and 268 million in the third. The full-year 2025 diluted weighted average was 276 million. The company's FY2025 MD&A summary reported $3.3 billion of share repurchases during 2025, which is consistent with the lower count. The reduction is modest, roughly 1.5% across three quarters, so per-share results are not being materially lifted by buybacks alone in these figures.
Context from the 2025 annual report
According to the company's 10-K MD&A summary for fiscal 2025, revenue rose 9% to $38.1 billion, operating income rose to $1.4 billion, and backlog (remaining performance obligations) reached $150.2 billion, up 26%. The same summary reported operating cash flow of $5.0 billion and free cash flow of $3.7 billion, with debt described as negligible at year-end. The company also said it expects the pending Prolec GE acquisition, about $5.3 billion, to be funded partly with debt. That acquisition will matter for the balance sheet and for future interest expense, and it is not reflected in the 2026 quarterly operating figures above.
Valuation and what to weigh next
At current prices, GE Vernova's computed metrics show a price-to-earnings ratio of about 23.4 times, an enterprise value to EBITDA multiple of about 51 times and a free-cash-flow yield of about 7.4%, as of October 28, 2026. Those figures capture a market that is pricing in continued expansion of the business, not the trailing quarters alone. The relevant questions for a reader are whether the gross-margin gains seen in the third quarter can hold as revenue scales, how the first-quarter non-operating item fits into the company's earnings base, and how the Prolec GE financing changes the capital structure. The company's next 10-Q and the cash flow statement in its 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, are the primary places to test those questions.