Calcbench

Good news, aficionados of financial analysis! The famed Calcbench Earnings Tracker is back in action, with our first analysis of Q3 2026 earnings data.  Our sample size in this first week of Q3 analysis is still small: 243 non-financial companies, almost all of them large firms in the S&P 500 since those are typically the folks who file first after quarter-close. Within that group, however, the numbers do seem off to a promising start. Figure 1, below, tells the tale. Revenue is up 15.2 percent from the year-ago period, operating income up 26.2 percent, and net income up 38 percent.  You might recall that Q2 earnings growth was distorted by what we called the SpaceX effect: gigantic leaps in net income in that period caused by a few tech firms reporting one-time gains from shares of SpaceX ($SPCX) that they owned, since SpaceX had just gone public. Here in Q3, that effect no longer exists. SpaceX ended Q3 at $148 per share, down from $157.50 at the...

Meta Platforms ended the third quarter of 2026 with $810 billion of spending it has already promised but not yet put on its balance sheet. That is $355.7 billion of signed leases that have not yet commenced, plus $454.5 billion of non-cancelable contractual commitments. One year earlier the same two figures summed to $139 billion. Against trailing-twelve-month operating cash flow of $133 billion, those commitments have gone from about 1.3 years of cash generation to about 6.1 years in twelve months. The timing has changed along with the size. At Q3 2024, 13.5% of contractual commitments were due after the next fiscal year. At Q3 2026, 63.2% were due after 2027. The buildup Meta commitments hit $810B, 6.1x trailing operating cash flow Non-cancelable contractual commitments plus unstarted leases, $ billions, end of quarter Contractual commitments Unstarted leases Trailing-twelve-month operating cash flow ...

One of the more eye-popping ideas to streak across the financial headlines lately was a report in the Financial Times that coffee kingpin Starbucks ($SBUX) has been contemplating a takeover of burrito behemoth Chipotle Mexican Grille ($CMG).  Starbucks subsequently said its management team remains “laser-focused” on turning around its own operations and looks forward to reporting its Q3 earnings on Oct. 29 — but the very idea of such a merger still left financial analysts with many questions.  For example, was this all the brainchild of Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who served as CEO of Chipotle before arriving at Starbucks in 2024? Just how many hungry consumers really would want to wash down a burrito with a frappucino, anyway?  And above all…  How would one compare the business models of Starbucks and Chipotle to see whether a merger like this actually makes sense?    On that last one, Calcbench can help. To get started on that analysis, we took the s...

Pepsico ($PEP) popped the champagne corks 18 months ago when it announced the acquisition of specialty soda maker Poppi in March 2025 for $1.95 billion. Famed for its low-sugar concoctions and an appearance on SharkTank, Poppi seemed like a startup with a bright future. Now that bright future might be fizzling out. Pepsi filed its latest earnings release last week , for the quarter ending Sept. 5. Buried in the Financial Instruments footnote disclosure was this: In connection with our acquisition of VNGR Beverage LLC (Poppi), we recorded a contingent consideration liability measured at fair value. Under the terms of the arrangement, we will be required to make a payment of $300 million if certain performance milestones are achieved by the third quarter of 2027; otherwise, no payment will be made … An increase in the net revenue and margin forecasts would result in a higher fair value measurement, while a decrease in the net revenue and margin forecasts would result in a lower fair val...