Vertiv beat third-quarter earnings expectations on robust sales growth and strong AI demand.

Vertiv VRT reported third-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $2.21 per share, up 78% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 21.43%.

Net sales surged 61.2% year over year to $4.31 billion, surpassing the consensus estimate by 14.61%. Organic sales increased 55%, while acquisitions contributed approximately 6%. Strong data center infrastructure demand supported broad-based growth, with organic orders increasing more than 100% year over year.

**VRT's Regional Sales Reflect Broad-Based Strength**

Americas net sales surged 74.5% year over year to $2.99 billion, including organic growth of 66.2%. Capacity expansion and disciplined backlog execution supported revenue growth across the portfolio. Management highlighted accelerating pipeline activity and strong demand across customer categories.

Asia Pacific revenues increased 49.9% year over year to $779.3 million, with organic growth of 48.3%. Demand remained particularly strong in India and Australia, while China showed encouraging signs of improvement.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) sales climbed 22.8% year over year to $544.7 million, including 19.3% organic growth. Management highlighted improving pipeline conversion, with the region's pipeline approximately doubling year over year.

**Vertiv's Revenue Mix Highlights Product Demand**

Product revenues surged 64.2% year over year to $3.64 billion, accounting for approximately 84% of total sales. Growth reflected increasing demand for power, cooling and integrated infrastructure solutions supporting high-density data centers.

For the third quarter of 2026, Service revenues increased 46.4% year over year to $675.7 million.

**VRT's Profitability Expands on Operational Efficiency**

Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 34.4% year over year to $556.9 million.

Operating profit surged 90.4% to $983.8 million, while GAAP operating margin expanded 350 basis points to 22.8%.

Adjusted operating profit climbed 82.5% year over year to $1.09 billion, exceeding the midpoint of guidance by $169 million. Adjusted operating margin expanded 290 basis points to 25.2%.

Americas adjusted operating profit rose 74.8% to $877.3 million, with a margin of 29.4%. APAC adjusted operating profit surged 93.3% to $132.4 million, while EMEA's increased 82.4% to $152.3 million.

**Vertiv's Cash Flow Supports Financial Flexibility**

As of Sept. 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents totaled $3.51 billion, with short-term investments of $198.8 million and long-term debt of $2.93 billion.

Net cash provided by operating activities increased 64.5% year over year to $794 million. Adjusted free cash flow rose 49.6% to $652.2 million.

**VRT's Capacity Expansion Targets AI Infrastructure**

Vertiv continues expanding its global manufacturing footprint to support accelerating demand. Investments include power and thermal management facilities across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. Management expects to double chiller production capacity by year-end.

The company is also advancing AI infrastructure deployment through collaborations with NVIDIA, Dassault Systèmes and Polar Data Centers. Its integrated design and modular deployment approach targets up to 30% higher cumulative AI token output during the first 12 months, compared with conventional deployment methods, based on modeled assumptions.

Management expects capital expenditures to represent approximately 4% of 2026 sales, supporting manufacturing expansion, engineering development and next-generation infrastructure technologies.

**Vertiv Raises Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Outlook**

For the fourth quarter of 2026, Vertiv expects net sales between $4.31 billion and $4.51 billion, with adjusted earnings of $2.22–$2.28 per share. Adjusted operating profit is projected to be between $1.12 billion and $1.16 billion, with an adjusted operating margin of 25.3%–26.3%.

For 2026, net sales are now forecasted to be between $14.45 billion and $14.85 billion, reflecting a $650 million increase at the midpoint from the prior guidance. Adjusted earnings are projected to be in the range of $7.10–$7.20 per share.

Adjusted operating profit is expected to be between $3.48 billion and $3.56 billion, with an adjusted operating margin of 23.5%–24.5%. Adjusted free cash flow guidance was raised to the range of $2.6 billion–$2.8 billion.

**VRT's Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider**

Vertiv currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector include ACI Worldwide (ACIW), Affirm (AFRM) and AMETEK (AME). While AFRM and AME sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), ACI Worldwide carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

ACI Worldwide shares have gained 15.4% in the year-to-date period. ACI Worldwide is set to report third-quarter 2026 results on Nov. 5.

Shares of Affirm have plunged 1.5% year to date. Affirm is set to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Nov. 5.

Shares of AMETEK have rallied 20.8% year to date. AMETEK is slated to report third-quarter 2026 results on Nov. 3.

*This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).*