Orders nearly doubled organically, backlog rose to $197 billion and full-year guidance went up. The company also doubled its buyback to $20 billion and agreed to buy grid-equipment maker Trench Group from Triton. The shares fell 6.6% at one point before recovering to about flat.
GE Vernova's third quarter was big on every line. The stock's round trip on Wednesday suggests the market wanted to know what it is paying for.
The power-equipment maker reported orders of $29.3 billion, up 96% organically, and said its backlog rose $20 billion in the quarter to $197 billion. Revenue rose 27% to $12.64 billion, against the roughly $12 billion analysts had expected, with organic growth of 18%. Net income nearly tripled to $1.29 billion, or $4.81 a share. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $1.94 billion, a margin of 15.4%. Operating cash flow was $6.06 billion and free cash flow $5.41 billion.
"We now expect our backlog to exceed $200 billion in the fourth quarter," said Scott Strazik, the chief executive.
Where the orders came from
The Power segment did most of the work. Its orders rose 178% to $21.78 billion, revenue rose 25% and its EBITDA margin widened 8 percentage points to 21.4%. Gas-turbine backlog and slot reservations rose to 122 gigawatts from 116, with a target of at least 130 by year-end. Part of that came from customers converting reservations into firm orders: reservations fell to 58 gigawatts from 63 as 13 gigawatts became orders.
Electrification was weaker underneath. Revenue rose 51%, but orders fell 9% organically, though they rose 6% on a reported basis.
Guidance and capital
The company raised its 2026 outlook: revenue of $46.5 billion to $47.5 billion, an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.5% to 14.5%, and free cash flow of $16 billion to $17 billion, up from $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion. It doubled its buyback authorization to $20 billion and ended the quarter with $16.8 billion of cash.
The Trench deal
It is also spending. GE Vernova agreed to buy Trench Group, a maker of high-voltage grid components, from Triton's fifth fund for about $9 billion, to be funded with cash and debt. GE Vernova said the price is 13 times Trench's projected 2028 adjusted EBITDA before synergies, which implies about $690 million of EBITDA that year. The deal is expected to close in late 2027.
For Triton, it is the exit from a business it carved out and expanded, adding more than 800 jobs, three bolt-on acquisitions and a new U.S. plant, by its own account. Triton said it is its fourth German exit in 18 months. Its investors will wait more than a year for the proceeds.
The acquisition adds grid equipment at the same time the company's own electrification orders are falling organically.
The reaction
The shares opened at $876.38, down from Tuesday's close of $895.08, fell as low as $836.24, a decline of 6.6%, and were at about $888 in early afternoon, down about 0.8%.
Two ways to read a flat stock
The positive reading: a near-doubling of orders, a backlog heading past $200 billion, a sharp rise in free cash flow guidance and a larger buyback show a company with years of visible demand and the cash to return capital and buy growth.
The cautious reading: much of that was expected in the price, a $9 billion purchase at 13 times projected 2028 adjusted EBITDA commits capital to a deal that will not close until late 2027, and the electrification orders decline shows that not every segment is accelerating.
What to watch
Detail on Trench's financing, electrification order trends in the fourth quarter, conversion of gas-turbine reservations, the pace of buybacks, and whether backlog passes $200 billion as forecast.