Certara, Inc. (CERT) · Nov 5, 2026 · Earnings
Beat — Adj. EPS $0.09 vs ~$0.087 consensus; revenue $94.9M vs ~$91.9M
Certara’s Q3 earnings narrowly beat expectations, with software revenue accelerating to double-digit growth while services and adjusted profit stayed under pressure.
Certara is in the middle of a post-divestiture reset: it sold its Regulatory and Medical Writing business, reorganized around its core biosimulation operations, and began cutting overhead to capture roughly $13 million of run-rate savings. This quarter shows the reset starting to work, but not yet fully translating into earnings. Revenue and adjusted EPS cleared the published bar, while the core software business delivered its best growth signal in two years. The company also narrowed full-year revenue growth guidance to 2%-3% from the prior 0%-4% range, lifting the floor but removing the upper end. 〔0〕
| Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Consensus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (Key Financials) | $94.9M (+4%) | $90.9M | ~$91.9M |
| Software revenue (Key Financials) | $48.8M (+11%) | $43.8M | |
| Services revenue (Key Financials) | $46.1M (-2%) | $47.1M | |
| Adjusted EBITDA (Key Financials) | $30.2M (+6%) | $28.6M | |
| Adjusted diluted EPS (Key Financials) | $0.09 | $0.09 | ~$0.087 |
Software is the clear positive surprise. Software revenue grew 11%, and software bookings rose to $46.9 million from $40.8 million, suggesting the company’s higher-priority product engine is gaining traction rather than merely benefiting from timing. Management called this its first double-digit software-growth quarter in two years.
The services business remains the constraint. Services revenue fell 2%, services bookings dropped 5%, and trailing twelve-month services bookings declined 2%. That mix matters because software momentum is improving, but the legacy services operation is still not contributing to broad-based growth.
Profit improvement is real but modest. Adjusted EBITDA rose 6% and margin reached 31.8%, helped by lower cost of revenue and the operating actions taken earlier in the year. But adjusted net income slipped to $13.5 million from $13.8 million, while nine-month adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS remain below last year. The headline margin improvement therefore reflects better operating discipline more than a clean acceleration in underlying earnings power.
The new product leadership supports the software pivot, but is not yet proof of execution. Grant Peterson became Chief Product Officer on November 2, bringing enterprise-software product experience to a company trying to focus investment on existing and new products. That is strategically consistent with the quarter’s software momentum, but the commercial payoff remains ahead rather than delivered. 〔1〕
Bottom line: Certara modestly outperformed the near-term earnings bar, with software growth finally becoming a convincing bright spot. The business story is improving, but services weakness and still-muted overall profit growth keep this from being a major reset of expectations.
Q4 results and 2027 outlook
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