Leidos earned $3.62 a share in the third quarter, $0.53 more than expected, and raised its full-year guidance for profit and cash flow. Revenue was $4.63B against $4.81B expected.

The revenue shortfall is mechanical. Leidos put its Security Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation businesses into the Analogic joint venture with Altaris, which closed on October 5, so their sales no longer count in its results. The same change explains why full-year revenue guidance is now $18.00bn to $18.20bn, down from $18.20bn to $18.40bn.

Profit and cash guidance went the other way. Leidos now expects non-GAAP diluted EPS of $12.50 to $12.70, up from $12.20 to $12.50, and operating cash flow of about $1.90bn, up from about $1.85bn. That suggests the business Leidos kept earns more profit and cash per dollar of revenue than before the carve-out. Chief Executive Tom Bell said the results let the company enhance its 2026 guidance for the third consecutive quarter.

The gain is coming through margin and cash flow rather than scale. Any direct return from the Altaris stake looks years away.

The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share, up 4.7% from the prior quarter. It is payable on December 31 to stockholders of record on December 15.

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