Generac misses third-quarter revenue estimates and raises low end of margin outlook

The company keeps its 2026 sales growth outlook and raises the low end of its adjusted EBITDA margin range.

Generac reported third-quarter earnings of $2.54 per share, $0.06 above expectations. Revenue came in at $1.29 billion, below the $1.35 billion expected.

President and Chief Executive Aaron Jagdfeld said a supply agreement with Amazon and other new customer wins had lifted the company's data center backlog to about $4.5 billion. He said the backlog supports confidence in plans to expand capacity.

For 2026, Generac kept its net sales growth outlook in the mid-to-high teens per cent range. It raised the low end of its adjusted EBITDA margin outlook, a measure of operating profit as a share of sales, to 20.5 per cent to 21.0 per cent, from 20.0 per cent to 21.0 per cent. Its net income margin outlook stayed at 9.0 per cent to 10.0 per cent.

On October 20, reports described Amazon's Nvidia prepayments and a German investment pledge as part of a wider pattern. Hyperscalers, the largest cloud operators, are locking in computing and power capacity well before the revenue from it arrives. For Generac, the $4.5 billion backlog points to generator and backup-power demand tied to AI data centers becoming a lasting growth driver rather than a single win. Revenue still missed expectations this quarter. Holding the sales outlook while narrowing the margin range suggests management expects cost control to offset any near-term execution gap. The wider backlog is not yet reflected in its forecasts.