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RTX earnings shock: growth slows to 11.1%!

Company · Oct 20, 2026 · 3 min read · Updated Nov 5, 2026

TL;DR

RTX revenue rose 11.1% from a year earlier in 2026 Q3. Still double digit, but slower than the quarter before.

Record sales, but the growth pace cooled

Revenue set a new high in 2026 Q3, the tallest bar on the chart. Revenue rose 11.1% from a year earlier in 2026 Q3. Growth was 14.5% in 2026 Q2, so the pace cooled from the prior . Measured over three years, compounded at 22.9% a year, so the longer run has been strong.

Quarterly revenue and growth rate
Revenue set a new high in the latest quarter while the growth line sat below its 2026 Q2 reading.
Data table
periodrevenueyoy
2023Q4$19.9bn10.1%
2024Q1$19.3bn12.1%
2024Q2$19.7bn7.7%
2024Q3$20.1bn49.2%
2024Q4$21.6bn8.5%
2025Q1$20.3bn5.2%
2025Q2$21.6bn9.4%
2025Q3$22.5bn11.9%
2025Q4$24.2bn12.1%
2026Q1$22.1bn8.7%
2026Q2$24.7bn14.5%
2026Q3$25.0bn11.1%

A record quarter and slower growth can live together. The chart shows revenue at its highest point while the growth line sits below its 2026 Q2 reading. For a beginner, that is the detail a headline misses: the size keeps setting records, the rate of change does not.

Glossary
revenue
The money a company takes in from selling its products and services, before any costs are paid.
quarter
A three-month slice of a company's financial year. Companies report results once per quarter.

Spending on new plant was a small slice of sales last quarter

RTX put 3.0% of its revenue into new plant and equipment in 2026 Q3. Depreciation is not reported in the source, so capex cannot be compared with it. The figures here run through 2026 Q3, the last period the data reaches, and that one quarter is the only spending reading in front of us. My reading: for a company of this size that looks like a light build-out, though a single quarter cannot tell you whether it is the usual pace.

My reading: a business like this grows on pricing and product mix more than on new factories. That makes cash the thing worth following, because profit can rise while cash does something else.

Quick quiz

What share of its sales did RTX spend on new plant and equipment last quarter?

Show answer

A tiny slice of sales RTX put 3.0% of its revenue into new plant and equipment in 2026 Q3, a small share of the quarter's sales.

The shares trailed peers in the same window, at a higher price tag

Over the ten trading days before the release, RTX's return ran 2.0% behind the . From release day onward, that gap was 7.2%. The basket holds 3 peers: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics. Only 4 trading days from the announcement are in the data. That means the figure after the event covers fewer days than the full window asks for, so treat it as early.

RTX and its peers around the release
The peer basket finished this window above RTX.
Data table
dayseriesvalueseries_role
-10RTX-0.6%target
-9RTX-2.2%target
-8RTX-0.0%target
-7RTX0.9%target
-6RTX1.3%target
-5RTX-0.7%target
-4RTX1.2%target
-3RTX1.4%target
-2RTX5.2%target
-1RTX4.2%target
0RTX4.9%target
1RTX3.9%target
2RTX5.6%target
3RTX3.6%target
-10Peer basket0.7%peer
-9Peer basket-1.2%peer
-8Peer basket0.5%peer
-7Peer basket0.6%peer
-6Peer basket1.5%peer
-5Peer basket0.4%peer
-4Peer basket2.9%peer
-3Peer basket4.1%peer
-2Peer basket7.5%peer
-1Peer basket6.3%peer
0Peer basket8.3%peer
1Peer basket8.8%peer
2Peer basket12.9%peer
3Peer basket13.6%peer
-10Cumulative abnormal return-1.2%neutral
-9Cumulative abnormal return-1.0%neutral
-8Cumulative abnormal return-0.5%neutral
-7Cumulative abnormal return0.3%neutral
-6Cumulative abnormal return-0.2%neutral
-5Cumulative abnormal return-1.1%neutral
-4Cumulative abnormal return-1.7%neutral
-3Cumulative abnormal return-2.6%neutral
-2Cumulative abnormal return-2.1%neutral
-1Cumulative abnormal return-2.0%neutral
0Cumulative abnormal return-3.2%neutral
1Cumulative abnormal return-4.6%neutral
2Cumulative abnormal return-6.7%neutral
3Cumulative abnormal return-9.2%neutral

On price, RTX trades at 30.7x against a peer median of 19.4x, a premium of 58.3%. General Dynamics is left out of that median because its quarterly earnings per share are missing. A higher multiple simply means buyers are paying more today for each dollar of past profit.

Glossary
trailing earnings
The profit a company has already reported over the past year, rather than a guess about the future.
peer basket
A small group of similar companies, averaged together, used as a yardstick for one company's share move.

How many times its trailing earnings do you think RTX shares trade at?

Show answer

30.7x RTX trades at 30.7x trailing earnings. The surprise is the contrast: it carries the richest tag of the three names with a figure, while its growth last quarter was close to Lockheed Martin's.

Risks

  • One-off items can lift or depress a single quarter, so adjusted and reported figures tell different stories.
  • A basket of only three defence names may be too small to read much into the relative move.
  • Currency translation or accounting changes can distort the year-on-year comparison.

Sources

  1. SEC EDGAR XBRL companyfacts, RTX CORPORATION — data as of 2026-09-30; fetched 2026-10-25 16:15 UTC
  2. FinMind USStockPrice GD — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:22 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  3. FinMind USStockPrice LMT — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:22 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  4. FinMind USStockPrice NOC — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:22 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges
  5. FinMind USStockPrice RTX — data as of 2026-10-23; fetched 2026-10-25 17:22 UTC; License note: FinMind open data; original source TWSE/TPEx or US exchanges