C.H. Robinson posts strong Q3 results, raises 2026 earnings target amid freight downturn

C.H. Robinson has reported another strong quarter, delivering higher earnings and margins despite ongoing freight market softness and global trade disruptions. The company credited its performance to disciplined execution of strategic initiatives and the growing impact of its Lean AI transformation.

“With seven consecutive quarters of consistent outperformance through the disciplined execution of the strategy that we shared at our 2024 Investor Day, there is no doubt in our minds that we are on the right path to deliver sustainable outperformance,” said President and CEO Dave Bozeman. “Our model, with an industry-leading cost to serve, is highly scalable and we expect it will improve further as we harness the evolving power of AI to drive automation across the quote-to-cash lifecycle of a load.”

In the third quarter, income from operations rose 22.6 per cent to US$220.8 million, while adjusted operating margin increased 680 basis points to 31.3 per cent. Diluted earnings per share climbed 67.5 per cent to US$1.34, and adjusted diluted EPS increased 9.4 per cent to US$1.40. The company generated US$275.4 million in cash from operations, up US$167.4 million from the previous year.

C.H. Robinson raised its 2026 operating income target to between US$965 million and US$1.04 billion.

At the centre of the company’s transformation is its “Lean AI” approach, which merges Lean methodology with artificial intelligence to improve efficiency, reduce waste and accelerate automation across supply chain operations.

“This is a new C.H. Robinson, and we don’t use the macro environment as an excuse. We are a fundamentally different company than we were two years ago, illustrated by the company’s consistent outperformance versus the market,” Bozeman said.

Damon Lee, C.H. Robinson CFO, said the company’s confidence in its strategy and execution underpinned its decision to raise 2026 targets.

“Based on the confidence in our strategy, our disciplined execution and our significant runway for further improvement, we are increasing our 2026 operating income target by roughly $50 million despite market dynamics that have created greater headwinds than we originally anticipated,” Lee said. “This results in a new 2026 operating income target range of $965 million to $1.04 billion. The bottom end of this range, which assumes zero market volume growth, equates to approximately $6 of earnings per share.”