RTX Q1 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/Y
RTX Corporation’s RTX 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-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 DynamicsGD 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 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 TechnologiesLHX 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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