Huron Consulting Group Inc. (HURN) · Nov 3, 2026 · Earnings
Beat — Adjusted EPS $2.62 vs ~$2.47 consensus
Huron’s Q3 earnings beat consensus, with adjusted EPS ahead of estimates and full-year EPS guidance raised again despite a flat revenue midpoint.
Huron is in the middle of a multi-year shift toward faster-growing managed services and digital work, led by healthcare demand and acquisitions such as RelateCare. Its Q2 update had already raised 2026 guidance, so this filing is less about proving the strategy exists and more about showing that execution is still running ahead of the plan.
The quarter beat the operating bar, especially on adjusted earnings. Q3 RBR rose 11.6% to $482.5 million, modestly above the published consensus of about $481.4 million, while adjusted diluted EPS reached $2.62 versus roughly $2.47 expected. That is a real beat, not merely a favorable year-over-year comparison. The company said, “Adjusted net income(8) increased $5.3million, or 14.1%, to $42.6million, or $2.62per diluted share(8), for the third quarter of 2026.”
| Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Consensus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| RBR (Financial Highlights) | $482.5M (+11.6%) | $432.4M | $481.4M |
| Adjusted diluted EPS (Adjusted EPS reconciliation) | $2.62 (+24.8%) | $2.10 | $2.47 |
| Adjusted EBITDA (Adjusted EBITDA table) | $77.3M (+14.7%) | $67.4M | |
| Adjusted EBITDA margin (Adjusted EBITDA table) | 16.0% | 15.6% | |
| GAAP diluted EPS (Income Statement) | $1.75 (+2.3%) | $1.71 |
The business mix is improving, though not uniformly. Healthcare remained the engine, with Q3 RBR up 16.5%, while Education grew 6.6% and Commercial grew 6.4%. Managed Services professionals more than doubled year over year, helped by RelateCare, and utilization improved in both Consulting and Digital. That supports Huron’s strategy of adding more recurring, operationally embedded work rather than relying only on traditional consulting headcount. The company said, “The number of Managed Services professionals increased 103.7% to 4,216 as of September 30, 2026 from 2,070 as of September 30, 2025.” 〔0〕
The full-year EPS raise is the clearest incremental positive. Huron lifted adjusted diluted EPS guidance to $9.20–$9.40 from the prior $9.00–$9.40 range, raising the midpoint from $9.20 to $9.30. By contrast, the RBR range moved to $1.855–$1.885 billion from $1.85–$1.89 billion: the midpoint stayed at $1.87 billion, but the range narrowed. In other words, the new information is better profit conversion and confidence in margins, not a larger revenue forecast. The filing states, “The company also anticipates adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of RBR(8) in a range of 14.5% to 15.0%, and is raising the midpoint and narrowing adjusted diluted earnings per share(8) guidance in a range of $9.20to $9.40.”
Capital returns are more aggressive, but they also underline the balance-sheet tradeoff. Huron repurchased $234.9 million of stock through nine months—10% of its year-end share count—and expanded the authorization to $1.1 billion. That boosts per-share earnings support, but operating cash flow was only $15.3 million year to date while long-term debt rose to $793.9 million from $489.7 million at year-end. The filing’s earnings signal is therefore stronger than its cash-generation signal, even though the debt-funded buyback does not undermine the quarter’s operating beat by itself.
Bottom line: Huron delivered a genuine adjusted-earnings beat and raised the profit outlook again, reinforcing the managed-services and margin-expansion story. The result is meaningfully better than expected, but it advances an already-working trajectory rather than rewriting the company’s story.
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