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WTW reported third-quarter revenue of $2.5 billion, up from $2.3 billion a year earlier but below the consensus. Adjusted earnings per share were $3.63, above the $3.60 consensus estimate. The company’s filing said organic revenue grew 4% after adjusting for currency movements, acquisitions and disposals.
The filing attributed growth in Health, Wealth & Career to new business and renewals in Health, retirement work and client wins in Wealth, and compensation survey sales in Career. Benefits Delivery & Outsourcing revenue declined organically as lower Individual Marketplace commissions outweighed gains in outsourcing. In Risk & Broking, the filing cited new business, book-of-business settlements and software sales as contributors to growth.
WTW’s reported operating margin was 17.4%, compared with 18.3% a year earlier. CFO Andrew Krasner said adjusted operating margin was 21.9%, up 150 basis points; excluding a $13 million gain from office-building sales, the margin expanded 100 basis points. Krasner also reported $1.064 billion of free cash flow for the first nine months of 2026, up from $838 million a year earlier, primarily driven by operating margin expansion.
| Q3 FY2026 | Q3 FY2025 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $2.5 billion | $2.3 billion | 7.52% |
| Diluted EPS | $3.29 | $3.11 | 5.70% |
| Gross margin | 100.0% | 100.0% | 0.0 percentage points |
| Operating margin | 17.4% | 18.3% | −0.8 percentage points |
| Free cash flow | $704.0 million | $621.0 million | 13.4% |
| Against the consensus | Reported | Consensus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adjusted EPS | $3.63 | $3.60 | Beat by 0.83% |
| Revenue | $2.5 billion | $2.5 billion | Missed by 0.70% |
Adjusted EPS is the figure the consensus estimates, not the GAAP EPS above.
What management said on the call
On the earnings call, CEO Carl Hess said commercial insurance rates continued to soften in the third quarter, particularly for property coverage, while U.S. casualty rates continued to rise. Risk & Broking president Lucy Clarke said large and complex risks were more affected by softer rates than the middle market.
CFO Andrew Krasner said Risk & Broking grew 5% organically, or 4% excluding book-of-business settlements and interest income. He attributed growth in North America to construction, surety, transactional risk and new business across specialty lines. For the fourth quarter, Krasner expects sequential organic growth acceleration in the segment, supported by specialty activity, new business and renewals.
Health, Wealth & Career president Julie Gebauer said employers were seeking help with rising healthcare costs. She said Career benefited from compensation survey delivery returning to its typical timing, but the Middle East conflict continued to limit regional growth. In the Q&A, Gebauer explained that three large Benefits Delivery & Outsourcing clients representing 75,000 retirees had postponed implementations into 2027.
Krasner said clients deferred discretionary consulting projects in Insurance Consulting and Technology even as demand for its software continued. He attributed Risk & Broking’s third-quarter margin expansion to book-of-business settlements and expense management, and noted that the segment’s margin is typically lowest in the third quarter and highest in the fourth.
Hess said WTW was rolling out AI-enabled tools under Propel, including an operating model for broking operations and workflows for benefits administration. Krasner said actions taken so far represented approximately $18 million of annualized run-rate savings. In the Q&A, he said the company had not given specific interim margin guidance for the program and expects its benefits to build over time.
Guidance
Krasner said WTW now expects low- to mid-single-digit organic growth in Health, Wealth & Career for 2026, rather than its prior mid-single-digit outlook. He narrowed Career’s outlook to low-single-digit growth from low- to mid-single-digit growth, and said Benefits Delivery & Outsourcing revenue should be roughly flat rather than grow at a low-single-digit rate.
For Insurance Consulting and Technology, Krasner now expects low-single-digit growth; WTW previously expected low- to mid-single-digit growth. He also said full-year share repurchases are expected to exceed $1 billion, subject to market conditions and potential investment opportunities, compared with prior guidance of $1 billion.
| Metric | For | Guide | Previous guide | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue, Risk and Broking Europe, non Gaap | Q4 FY2026 | WTW expects revenue growth in Europe to accelerate in Q4 FY2026. | — | — |
| Headcount, Willis Re | FY2026 | 350 | — | — |
| Free cash flow, Free Cash Flow Margin | FY2029 | WTW expects its free cash flow margin to step up again in FY2029. | — | — |
| Operating margin, Risk and Broking, non Gaap | FY2028 | 30.0% | — | New |
| Share repurchases | FY2026 | $1.0 billion | $1.0 billion | Held |
| Free cash flow, Free Cash Flow Margin | FY2026 | WTW expects its free cash flow margin to expand in FY2026. | — | — |
| Tax rate, non-GAAP | FY2026 | WTW expects its adjusted tax rate in FY2026 to be relatively consistent with the prior year. | — | — |
| Operating margin, Risk and Broking | FY2026 | 1.00% | 1.00% | Held |
| Revenue, Risk and Broking, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects mid-single-digit organic revenue growth in Risk & Broking in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Risk and Broking, non Gaap | Q4 FY2026 | WTW expects Risk & Broking organic revenue growth to accelerate sequentially in Q4 FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Insurance Consulting and Technology, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects low-single-digit revenue growth in Insurance Consulting and Technology in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Corporate Risk and Broking, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects mid-single-digit organic revenue growth in Corporate Risk & Broking in FY2026. | — | — |
| Operating margin, Health Wealth and Career | FY2026 | WTW expects Health, Wealth & Career operating margin expansion in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Health Wealth and Career, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects low-to-mid-single-digit organic revenue growth in Health, Wealth & Career in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Benefits Delivery and Outsourcing, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects Benefits Delivery & Outsourcing revenue to be roughly flat in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Career, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects low-single-digit revenue growth in Career in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Wealth, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects Wealth revenue growth at the high end of the low-single-digit range in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Health, non Gaap | FY2026 | WTW expects high-single-digit organic revenue growth in Health in FY2026. | — | — |
| Operating margin, non-GAAP | FY2028 | 30.0% | 30.0% | Held |
| Revenue, non-GAAP | FY2026 | WTW expects organic revenue growth toward the lower end of the mid-single-digit range in FY2026. | — | — |
| Revenue, Newfront | FY2026 | $250.0 million | — | New |
| EPS, Non Gaap; foreign exchange | FY2026 | $0.35 | — | New |
| EBITDA growth, Non Gaap; newfront acquisition post-close | FY2026 | 26.0% | — | New |
| Revenue, Newfront acquisition post-close | FY2026 | $250.0 million | — | New |
| EPS, Non Gaap; newfront acquisition | FY2026 | $0.10 | — | New |
| Operating margin, Risk and Broking | FY2028 | 30.0% | — | New |
| Operating margin, Health Wealth and Career | FY2028 | 35.0% | — | New |
| Operating margin | FY2028 | 30.0% | — | New |