Autoliv Q3 2026 earnings: sales and profit dip as results miss estimates
Autoliv's Q3 2026 revenue and earnings per share both came in below Wall Street's expectations, with sales edging lower and full-year profit guidance trimmed toward the low end of its prior range.
| Q3 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | $2.19 | $2.34 | -6.2% |
| Revenue | $2.69B | $2.76B | -2.5% |
Key takeaways
- Autoliv, the Swedish-American maker of airbags and seatbelts, posted net sales of about $2.69 billion for Q3 2026, down slightly from a year earlier and below analysts’ forecasts; earnings per share also came in under estimates.
- Sales adjusted for currency swings, known as organic sales, fell around 1%, as weaker vehicle production in Europe and the Americas outweighed stronger demand in Asia outside China and in China itself.
- Reported operating margin was about 9.4%, with an adjusted version that strips out one-time items at 9.7%; the year-over-year comparison looks softer partly because the year-ago quarter included a one-time supplier settlement payment that had boosted profit then.
- Over the trailing twelve months, gross margin was near 19% and operating margin near 9%, reflecting the heavy manufacturing and raw-material costs of producing safety components; net profit margin over the same period was under 6%, a slimmer slice of each sales dollar reaching the bottom line.
- Cash generated from operations slipped to $239 million from $258 million a year earlier, and free cash flow (cash left after equipment and other spending) fell to $124 million from $153 million, leaving less spare cash on hand this quarter.
- The company kept buying back stock, repurchasing and retiring about 1.23 million shares during the quarter at an average price near $122 each, a sign management continued returning cash to shareholders despite the softer quarter.
- For the full year 2026, Autoliv now points to roughly flat organic sales growth, about 2.5 percentage points of benefit from currency exchange rates, an adjusted operating margin near 10.5%, and roughly $1.2 billion in operating cash flow — the margin figure sits at the lower end of the 10.5%-11% range management had outlined after the second quarter.
- Going into the release, analysts had generally expected earnings per share in the $2.21-$2.24 range and revenue near $2.72 billion, so both figures landed below where the market had been positioned.
- Management had previously said it expected the third-quarter adjusted margin to be similar to the first half of 2026, with a stronger fourth quarter to follow — a trajectory the reported numbers were broadly in line with.
How the stock took it
Autoliv, Inc. closed at $118.88 on Oct 22, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $115.32 on Oct 26, 2026, the first session after it — -3.0% across the report.
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 19.1% | Trailing 12 months |
| Operating margin | 9.2% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | 5.8% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | 8.0% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | $8.52 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 5.9% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS growth (YoY) | -7.0% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | 25.1% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · financial news coverage