Waystar Holding Corp. (WAY) · Nov 2, 2026 · Earnings
Beat — Diluted non-GAAP EPS $0.44 vs ~$0.41 consensus
Waystar’s Q3 earnings beat consensus on revenue and adjusted EPS, while stronger subscription growth came with weaker year-to-date cash flow and higher net leverage.
Waystar is a scaled healthcare-payments software platform pushing deeper provider adoption of its connected, AI-enabled revenue-cycle tools; the current strategy is to turn that installed base and transaction data into faster subscription growth and new agentic-AI workflows. Its prior baseline was already strong: after Q2, management guided to $1.276B–$1.294B of 2026 revenue and $535M–$545M of adjusted EBITDA.
The quarter beat a reasonable market bar. Revenue reached $325.6M, modestly above published consensus of roughly $323.4M, while diluted non-GAAP EPS was $0.44 versus about $0.41 expected. The better signal is mix: subscription revenue grew 34% year over year to $180.7M, while volume-based revenue grew only 8%, suggesting the recurring software engine—not just transaction volumes—continued to carry the quarter.
| Metric | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Consensus / comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (Financial statements) | $325.6M (+21.2%) | $268.7M | $323.4M |
| Diluted non-GAAP EPS (Non-GAAP net income) | $0.44 | $0.37 | ~$0.41 |
| Adjusted EBITDA (Adjusted EBITDA reconciliation) | $139.3M (+23.6%) | $112.7M | |
| Adjusted EBITDA margin (Adjusted EBITDA reconciliation) | 42.8% | 42.0% | |
| Unlevered free cash flow (Cash flow reconciliation) | $114.8M (+19.9%) | $95.7M | |
| Nine-month unlevered free cash flow (Cash flow reconciliation) | $269.0M (-5.7%) | $285.3M | |
| Adjusted net leverage (Leverage table) | 2.2x | 1.9x |
Operating execution remains healthy, but the cash story is less clean. Adjusted EBITDA grew faster than revenue and margin expanded to 42.8%, while net revenue retention held at 108% and the number of clients contributing more than $100,000 of annual revenue rose 14%. 〔0〕 However, nine-month unlevered free cash flow fell to $269.0M from $285.3M as capital spending increased, and net debt rose to $1.19B from $814M last year despite EBITDA growth. That makes this a beat on execution, not an unqualified improvement in financial flexibility.
The filing advances the growth story without rewriting it. The result supports Waystar’s existing thesis—recurring software adoption and AI-related expansion are working—but the outperformance is modest relative to expectations, and the filing does not present a clearly new full-year outlook in the supplied release. The higher debt balance and weaker year-to-date cash conversion keep the result from being a major upgrade to the overall business view.
Bottom line: Waystar delivered a genuine but narrow earnings beat, led by subscription growth and expanding adjusted margins. The business is on track, but rising net debt and softer year-to-date cash generation make this a modest step forward rather than a story-changing quarter.
Q4 2026 earnings report
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