GBTG Q2 2026 - Preliminary Earnings Alert
Event: Quartr Q2 2026 event Retrieved: 2026-08-04T20:15:00Z Comparison mode: maximal Scorecard contract: v1 Source status: release=available | financials=release document only | transcript=not available
Consensus scorecard
| Metric / basis | Quartr actual | API Ninjas consensus | Beat/Miss | Beat/Miss % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue / consolidated revenue | $870.0m | $810.6m | Beat +$59.4m | +7.3% |
| EPS / GAAP diluted | $0.03 | $0.06 | Miss −$0.03 | −50.0% |
Consensus basis: same-event API Ninjas row for GBTG dated 2026-08-04 (estimated revenue $810,600,000; estimated EPS $0.06), matched on exact ticker and release date. Amex GBT publishes no adjusted or non-GAAP per-share figure, so the maximal-mode EPS ladder resolves to GAAP diluted EPS of $0.03 from the release income statement.
- Scorecard recap: revenue beat consensus by 7.3% ($870m vs. $810.6m) while GAAP diluted EPS of $0.03 came in half the $0.06 estimate.
Reported results and guidance
| Metric (GAAP unless noted) | Q2 2026 | Q2 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $870m | $631m | +38% |
| Revenue excluding acquisitions | — | — | +10% |
| Total operating expenses | $846m | $597m | +42% |
| Operating income | $24m | $34m | −$10m |
| Gross profit | $494m | $371m | +33% |
| Gross profit margin | 57% | 59% | −200bps |
| Adjusted gross profit (non-GAAP) | $514m | $389m | +32% |
| Adjusted gross profit margin (non-GAAP) | 59% | 62% | −250bps |
| Adjusted operating expenses (non-GAAP) | $696m | $500m | +39% |
| Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) | $178m | $133m | +34% |
| Adjusted EBITDA margin (non-GAAP) | 21% | 21% | −60bps |
| Net income | $17m | $15m | +14% |
| Diluted EPS (GAAP) | $0.03 | $0.03 | unchanged |
| Weighted average diluted shares | 520.4m | 474.8m | +9.6% |
| Operating cash flow | $142m | $57m | +153% |
| Free cash flow (non-GAAP) | $103m | $27m | +281% |
| Net debt / LTM adjusted EBITDA | 1.7x | 1.6x | +0.1x |
| TTV growth | +57% | — | — |
| Transaction growth | +45% | — | — |
- The release contains no forward revenue, margin, or EPS guidance. The company is under a definitive agreement to be acquired by Long Lake Management; shareholder approval was obtained on 2026-08-03 and the merger is expected to close in the second half of 2026 subject to regulatory approvals.
- LTM Total New Wins Value of $3.5bn and LTM SME New Wins Value of $2.3bn (+11% year over year) are the disclosed commercial metrics; customer retention was 95% including CWT.
Key bullish aspects
- Revenue rose 38% to $870m and grew 10% excluding acquisitions, with TTV up 57% and transactions up 45%.
- Adjusted EBITDA of $178m rose 34% and is the highest of the last four quarters ($128m, $130m, $150m, $178m), lifting LTM adjusted EBITDA to $586m.
- Free cash flow of $103m rose 281% year over year, and operating cash flow of $142m rose 153% on favorable working-capital timing and lower cash taxes.
- Cost actions are visible in the numbers: $18m of cost transformation benefits and $14m of CWT net synergies landed in the quarter, in line with the company's own expectation.
- Commercial disclosures are constructive — $3.5bn LTM Total New Wins Value with named wins at Google, Koch and Pfizer, 95% retention, and 83% of eligible joint SAP customers now on Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT.
Key bearish aspects
- GAAP diluted EPS of $0.03 missed the $0.06 consensus by half, and operating income fell to $24m from $34m despite $239m of incremental revenue.
- Total operating expenses grew 42%, faster than the 38% revenue growth, so the operating line deleveraged.
- Margin quality declined: gross profit margin fell 200bps to 57% and adjusted gross profit margin fell 250bps to 59%, consistent with acquired revenue carrying a lower margin than the legacy book.
- Restructuring, exit and related charges rose to $45m from $13m (including $38m of employee severance versus $11m), and integration costs rose to $17m from $3m.
- Net income of $17m was helped by a $2m tax provision versus $21m a year earlier; pre-tax income actually fell to $6m from $32m.
- The diluted share count rose 9.6% to 520.4m, so per-share results are earned against a larger denominator.
Key uncertainties
- The pending Long Lake Management merger dominates the forward picture: no guidance is provided, no call-based outlook can be assumed, and the release itself flags change-of-control contract-termination risk among customers during the pendency of the deal.
- Roughly 28 of the 38 points of revenue growth are acquisition-driven; the release does not disclose CWT-specific revenue or margin, so the organic margin trajectory cannot be separated from the acquired mix.
- Restructuring is running at an elevated rate ($45m this quarter, $135m over the last twelve months) with no disclosed end-state cost or completion date for the CWT synergy and cost-transformation programs.
- Adjusted EBITDA excludes a $9m unrealized foreign-exchange gain this quarter versus a $10m loss a year earlier, and a $6m favorable earnout-derivative movement; the composition of adjustments moves materially between periods.
- Net debt rose to $994m from $780m a year earlier while leverage stayed near 1.7x only because LTM adjusted EBITDA grew; the release does not state a target leverage level or post-merger capital structure.
Market context
- API Ninjas snapshot: GBTG $9.425 on NYSE, volume 3,582,837, retrieved 2026-08-04T20:11:43Z (4:11 p.m. ET). This is a single quote near the close, not a complete session or a measurement of the reaction to the release.
Source limitations
- Every actual above comes from the Quartr release document (document 3674885); Quartr standardized financials for this event are not yet populated.
- API Ninjas supplied no actual or difference fields for this event, so both variances are calculated locally as Quartr actual minus API Ninjas estimate. The API row carried no fiscal year or quarter, so the exact ticker-and-event-date match path was used.
- The consensus EPS basis is not stated by the provider. GBTG publishes no adjusted EPS, so the comparison uses GAAP diluted EPS; if the $0.06 estimate reflects a non-GAAP construct the company does not report, the EPS miss would overstate the shortfall.
- No transcript is available for this event; a post-call update will follow if one is published.