ADNT

A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Adient (ADNT). Shares have added about 3.8% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500. But investors have to be wondering, will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Adient due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers. Adient reported adjusted earnings of 48 cents per share in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, which increased 6.7% year over year but missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 53 cents by 9.4%. Net sales rose 5% to $3.93 billion and topped the consensus mark of $3.70 billion by 6.1%.Sales benefited from favorable foreign exchange, stronger volumes in the Americas and Asia, and recent launches. Consolidated sales in China increased about 33% year over year, supported by production ramps at NIO, Leapmotor and Nissan. ADNT generated adjusted EBITDA of $225 million, down slightly from $226 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 30 basis points to 5.7%, as the company absorbed about $32 million of temporary headwinds tied to the Middle East conflict and customer- and supplier-driven disruptions.Higher commodity and freight expenses contributed to the pressure, along with operating inefficiencies. Roughly $20 million of the quarterly headwind was Middle East-related, including freight, fuel and resin costs. About 90% of the foam business has pass-throughs or escalators, though recoveries typically occur with about a two-quarter lag. Americas sales increased 9.5% year over year to $1.93 billion. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $125 million from $112 million, while margin edged up to 6.5% from 6.4%, supported by higher volumes with key customers despite added input costs and temporary operating inefficiencies.EMEA sales declined 4.5% to $1.21 billion, and adjusted EBITDA fell to $14 million from $21 million as lower customer volumes weighed on results. Asia sales climbed 12.3% to $810 million, but adjusted EBITDA decreased to $107 million from $113 million amid lower equity income, China mix pressure, softer ICE demand and launch investments. ADNT generated $205 million of operating cash flow in the quarter, up from $172 million a year ago. Capital expenditures were $67 million, resulting in free cash flow of $138 million versus $115 million in the prior-year period. The quarter benefited from about $45 million of customer payment timing that is expected to reverse in the fourth quarter.Cash and cash equivalents stood at $924 million as of June 30, 2026, down from $958 million as of Sept. 30, 2025. Total liquidity was about $1.8 billion, including roughly $834 million of available revolver capacity, while the leverage ratio was 1.7 times. The company repurchased $30 million of shares during the quarter, bringing fiscal year-to-date repurchases to $55 million. As of June 30, 2026, $80 million of shares remain under the current share repurchase authorization. Adient raised its fiscal 2026 consolidated sales outlook to about $15 billion from roughly $14.8 billion, reflecting improved customer production schedules and, to a lesser extent, favorable foreign exchange. The company kept its adjusted EBITDA forecast at approximately $885 million.Free cash flow guidance remains about $130 million, while capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $300 million. The company expects Middle East-related pressures, including elevated chemical and freight costs and lower export volumes in certain markets, to continue weighing on near-term profitability. It sees full-year Middle East costs at roughly $35-$40 million based on current conditions. ADNT continued to build its future revenue base through new awards and premium-content launches. Recent wins include the Ram Dakota, Honda Pilot and Tata Nexon, while the company also secured new business on the FAW-Volkswagen VW416/5 program in China.Adient is also moving seating innovations into production. ProForce Massage Flow won business on the Changan Avatr E518 and Dongfeng-Voyah H77B, while the Leapmotor D99 includes zero-gravity seating and power swivel content. In EMEA, Adient is supporting vertically integrated launches for the Volvo EX60 and Mercedes-Benz AMG.EA-GT. It turns out, estimates revision flatlined during the past month. The consensus estimate has shifted -10.08% due to these changes. Currently, Adient has a great Growth Score of A, though it is lagging a lot on the Momentum Score front with an F. However, the stock has a grade of A on the value side, putting it in the top quintile for this investment strategy. Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of A. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in. Adient has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). We expect a below average return from the stock in the next few months. Adient is part of the Zacks Automotive - Original Equipment industry. Over the past month, Allison Transmission (ALSN), a stock from the same industry, has gained 10.5%. The company reported its results for the quarter ended June 2026 more than a month ago. Allison Transmission reported revenues of $1.57 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +92.4%. EPS of $2.73 for the same period compares with $2.29 a year ago. Allison Transmission is expected to post earnings of $2.42 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +48.5%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +5.5%. Allison Transmission has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) based on the overall direction and magnitude of estimate revisions. Additionally, the stock has a VGM Score of A. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Adient (ADNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. (ALSN) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET President and Chief Executive Officer - Jerome Dorlack Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer - Mark Oswald Operator: Welcome to Adient's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I'd like to inform all participants that today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Linda Conrad. Thank you, and you may begin. Linda Conrad: Thank you, Shirley. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. The press release and presentation slides for our call today have been posted to the Investors section of our website at adient.com. This morning, I'm joined by Jerome Dorlack, Adient's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mark Oswald, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, Jerome will provide an update on the business. Mark will then review our Q3 financial results and our outlook for the remainder of our fiscal year. After the prepared remarks, we will open the call to your questions. Before I turn the call over to Jerome and Mark, there are a few items I'd like to cover. First, today's conference call will include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the environment as we see it today and therefore involve risks and uncertainties. I would caution you that our actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements made on the call. Please refer to Slide 2 of the presentation for our complete safe harbor statement. In addition to the financial results presented on a GAAP basis, we will be discussing non-GAAP information that we believe is useful in evaluating the company's operating performance. Reconciliations for these non-GAAP measures to the closest GAAP equivalent can be found in the appendix of our full earnings release. And with that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Jerome. Jerome Dorlack: Thanks, Linda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'll begin with a business update on our third quarter performance as well as provide an update on how we are managing through the current operating environment and why we remain confident in the strength of Adient's operating model. Before that, though, I want to take a moment to recognize our global team. Their unrelenting focus on execution, launch discipline, customer responsiveness and operational performance is what reinforces Adient's position as the supplier of choice. Our strong relationships with our customers continue to drive new business awards and support the durability of our revenue base. I would also like to thank our customers for their continued trust and partnership. Their confidence in Adient and their willingness to rely on us on some of their most important vehicle programs is something that we never take for granted. We remain committed to earning that trust every day through flawless execution, innovation and operational excellence. With that, let's turn to the Q3 summary page. Our third quarter performance aligned with our internal expectations even as external conditions pressured near-term results. Consolidated revenue was approximately $3.9 billion, up 5% year-over-year, while the adjusted EBITDA was $225 million, flat compared with prior year. The point I want to highlight is that the pressure we are seeing this year has been largely external and in our view, temporary. Vehicle production remained relatively stable overall, but certain customer programs have faced headwinds and the Middle East conflict drove macro-related pressure, including elevated commodity and freight costs and lower exports into the Middle East, primarily from Asia outside of China. In commodities and freight, specifically, costs remain elevated, but we are beginning to see signs of stabilization. Overall, we see these headwinds as manageable. Most importantly, our business performance remains solid. The operating model is delivering. Our book of business remains strong, and we believe Adient is well positioned to capitalize on top-line growth as the external environment normalizes. We also demonstrated our disciplined approach to capital allocation during this quarter. We returned $30 million to shareholders through share repurchases in Q3, bringing year-to-date repurchases to $55 million, and we remain committed to our balanced capital allocation strategy as we move through Q4. Stepping back, Q3 was another quarter where the team executed well through volatility. The near-term headwinds put downward pressure on reported results, but the underlying performance of the business remains solid, and our operating model continues to position us well for future growth and shareholder value creation. Moving now to the regional update on Slide 5. As we look across the business this quarter, what stands out is the resilience of our regions to deliver even as conditions remain mixed across the global automotive industry. Each of our regions is managing through a combination of external pressures, customer-specific volume fluctuations and ongoing geopolitical impacts. At the same time, we are seeing encouraging evidence of the actions we've taken to strengthen the business are translating into resilient performance and positioning us well for the future. Starting with the Americas. The region delivered a solid quarter supported by strong operational execution, favorable customer mix and disciplined cost management. We achieved sales growth and margin expansion despite temporary operational inefficiencies and customer-driven interruptions. The team remains focused on controlling what we can control, including managing through elevated commodity and freight costs related to the Middle East conflict. At the same time, we are engaged in constructive discussions with customers around onshoring opportunities. While we have nothing new to announce today, we believe Adient is well positioned to benefit from these trends over time given our North America manufacturing footprint, engineering capabilities and strong embedded and durable customer relationships. Moving now to EMEA. The environment remains challenging. Lower customer production levels and ongoing market softness are pressuring volumes and profitability. That said, we are seeing the benefits of the restructuring and operational actions we've implemented over the past several years take hold. Business performance is improving, cost discipline remains strong, and we are working closely with customers to navigate the current environment. We also have line of sight on the roll-off of our underperforming metals business, which we view as a positive contributor as we move into fiscal year '27. While there is still work to do, the team remains focused on improving the quality of the business and driving further operational progress. Moving to Asia. China remains a dynamic market. While the broader market has softened, our business once again outperformed and continues to benefit from strong positions with many of the customers gaining share in the market today. Customers such as NIO and Leapmotor supported by new launches, premium content programs and continued customer confidence in adding it's capabilities. In addition, our mix is rapidly moving closer to the industry profile, where approximately 70% of production is represented by local OEMs. While that shift has created some expected margin pressure, the impact is occurring more gradually than we initially anticipated. As a result, we do expect some additional margin compression as we move into fiscal year '27. While attention is typically focused on China, it's also important to highlight the strength of our business across the rest of Asia, which generates nearly $2 billion in annual revenue. We are a leading seating supplier in the region, and our combination of scale, customer diversity and disciplined execution provides a solid foundation for continued profitable growth. For additional context, we have included an overview of this business in the appendix that we would encourage you to review. The strength of our Asia business outside of China, combined with our strong competitive position within China, continues to support attractive earnings and cash flow generation. Asia remains an accretive region for Adient and will continue to be an important contributor to our long-term growth, profitability and shareholder value creation. When we step back and look across the portfolio, we see a business that is executing well. The Americas is building momentum. EMEA is making measurable progress despite a challenging environment, and Asia is selectively growing with market leaders while maintaining profitability and supporting our long-term growth strategy. These regional trends reinforce our confidence in the strength of our operating model, the quality of our customer relationships and our ability to create sustainable shareholder value over the long term. Moving to Slide 6. I would like to spend a moment on what sits behind these results because our performance is not accidental, it is intentional. It is the direct product of Adient's position as a supplier of choice, and that status is earned every day across 4 dimensions. It starts with launch execution. Consistent flawless launches are the foundation for everything else. Our proven ability to deliver complex programs on time with strong quality and responsiveness is what earns the confidence of our customers. This is reinforced by our engineering and innovation. We are involved in early vehicle development, bringing innovative products that support content growth and partnering with customers to take cost out of the value stream. We strengthened that foundation further with our world-class footprint, which allows us to support customers globally. Collectively, this is what allows us to execute on programs consistently across regions with the scale and operational flexibility our customers need. Supplier of choice status matters. It converts directly into tangible business wins, deeper customer relationships and long-term shareholder value. Nowhere is that clearer than a customer recognition, and this quarter gave us several standouts. We were recently honored by both Toyota and Mitsubishi for being an outstanding supplier. And we are especially proud of the Adient team in the Americas for once again being named GM Supplier of the Year for the fifth consecutive year, which reinforces the strength of our relationship and the confidence customers have in Adient's execution. That same trust supported the recent Chevrolet Equinox conquest and onshoring win we announced last quarter. Furthermore, in China, Adient recently received NIO's highest supplier recognition, the Guardianship Award. This reflects more than a decade of mutual trust and collaboration with NIO. Adient was also named to NIO's primary and preferred partner list, recognizing us as NIO's primary seating supplier. Adient also received Chery's highest supplier recognition, The Excellent Supplier Award in recognition of our outstanding launch execution and support for the KP31 pickup export program. That award ties directly back to the importance of launch execution already mentioned. Customer recognition is the leading indicator. Being a trusted partner ultimately results in new business awards. On the next slide, we will walk you through a few of those as well as a few premium program launches. Slide 7 highlights several proof points that support Adient's future growth and durable revenue visibility. They reflect the strength of our customer relationships, our engineering capabilities and our ability to launch complex seating programs across regions. We are winning business where our customers need a partner that can support them from design and engineering through launch and production. There are a couple of themes here worth calling out. First, our platform wins reinforce the long-cycle nature of our revenue. Programs such as the Ram Dakota, Honda Pilot and Tata Nexon are not only important awards for Adient, but they are also important platforms for our customers. Being selected on these programs reflects the trust our customers place in Adient and helps strengthen our long-term position on vehicles that are central to their future plans. We also want to highlight the commercialization of innovation and its growth across customers. As an example, ProForce Massage Flow is moving from concept to production across multiple customers in Asia as shown with the recent awards on the Changan Avatr E518 and the Dongfeng Voyah H77B. And finally, our launch execution remains a competitive advantage. In EMEA, we are supporting vertically integrated launches with global OEMs, including the Volvo EX60 and Mercedes-Benz AMG.EA-GT. In Asia, we are launching complete seat systems featuring premium content such as zero gravity seating and power swivel on the Leapmotor D99. Taken together, these wins show the foundation of Adient's operating model is delivering tangible commercial outcomes. We are leveraging engineering, manufacturing scale, vertical integration and customer trust to secure higher-value business and support future content growth. That is what gives us confidence in the durability of our revenue stream and our ability to convert execution into long-term value creation. Let's take a closer look at a specific example on Slide 8. As you may recall, we mentioned the launch of the all-new Nissan Elgrand last quarter. It is worth spending a minute talking about this program because it represents the breadth of capabilities that Adient brings to its customers. The Elgrand is Nissan's first major redesign of this platform in more than a decade and is an important program in the premium MPV segment. For Adient, this program showcases how we help customers differentiate their vehicles through content-rich seating solutions. The vehicle includes zero gravity seating, enhanced comfort and adjustability features and a unique third row architecture that combines passenger flexibility with cargo functionality. In addition, this program showcases Adient's ability to provide our customers with vertical integration, which optimizes seating design and manufacturability across foam, trim and JIT, resulting in improved cost and quality for our customers. Looking a bit more internally at Adient and the how of what we do. The Elgrand program also highlights our ability to drive manufacturing process innovation. A few examples of this is that the program has AI-enabled weld inspection, fully automated rail assembly, automated loading and unloading at the end of line and seat inspection. Our commitment to manufacturing process innovation helps improve quality, consistency and operational performance. If you have a chance after the call, I'd encourage you to take a look at the short video linked on this page, which shows an example of our AI weld inspection process in action and provides a practical example of how we're applying automation and artificial intelligence on the plant floor, not only to improve quality, but also reduce costs to improve the competitive position of Adient and its customers. Innovation at Adient is not just about a few new features. It's about integrating engineering, manufacturing, automation and launch execution to help our customers win in the marketplace while enhancing the strength of our operating model. Moving to Slide 9. In closing, before I hand it over to Mark, I want to come back to a point I made earlier. Adient is executing through a volatile environment, external cost pressures, customer-driven disruptions and uneven market conditions are creating near-term headwinds, but the underlying performance of our business remains resilient. Across the portfolio, we're focused on controlling what we control. That means advancing regional improvement plans, driving operational excellence and investing in actions that strengthen the business over the long term. A good example is how we're responding to the production volatility we're seeing on certain customer programs, in particular, full-size pickup trucks. Rather than simply absorbing these inefficiencies, we're accelerating investments in automation, digital manufacturing and advanced material handling technologies. These initiatives are helping us improve productivity, increase operational flexibility and reduce labor intensity as well as better manage fluctuations in customer production schedules. Those are the kinds of self-help actions that enhance our competitiveness and strengthen our operating model regardless of the external environment. On the regional progress, the Americas is building momentum. EMEA is making progress through restructuring and customer collaboration, and Asia remains accretive to Adient supported by strong customer relationships and growth with market leaders, creating a world-class competitive moat. At the same time, customer recognition, launch execution and new business awards reinforce the strength of our operating model and support our confidence in the outlook. Our focus remains on finishing fiscal year '26 strong, delivering our commitments and positioning Adient for success in fiscal year '27 and beyond. With that, I will hand it over to Mark to walk us through the financial results and outlook. Mark Oswald: Thanks, Jerome. Let's turn to the financials on Slide 11. Adhering to our typical format, the page shows our reported results on the left side and our adjusted results on the right side. My comments will focus on the adjusted results, which exclude special items that we view as either onetime in nature or otherwise not reflective of the underlying performance of the business. Full details on these adjustments are included in the appendix of the presentation for reference. That said, moving to the right side, high level for the quarter. Sales for the quarter were $3.9 billion, up 5% year-over-year, reflecting favorable FX, strong volumes, particularly in the Americas and Asia and solid commercial discipline. Adjusted EBITDA was $225 million, relatively flat year-on-year, reflecting the impacts from the Middle East conflict-related costs and temporary operating headwinds, which we'll get into further in a couple of slides. Equity income was lower year-over-year as a result of lower volumes with certain customers in China, primarily driven by softer demand on ICE vehicles. Adjusted net income was flat year-over-year at $38 million or $0.48 per share. Let's dive into the quarter beginning with revenues. Turning to Slide 12. Consolidated revenue increased 5% year-over-year to approximately $3.9 billion, reflecting favorable volume, pricing and foreign exchange. Looking at regional performance, the Americas outperformed the market, benefiting from strong volumes with key customers, pricing and recent program launches. While we're pleased with the momentum, we would expect that the level of outgrowth to moderate into fiscal year '27 as certain lower-margin third-party metals business rolls off, which is consistent with our portfolio optimization strategy. In EMEA, sales remained below market levels, primarily reflecting customer mix. As Jerome noted earlier, this remains a difficult volume environment across the region. We are managing through that directly with our customers, staying closely engaged on current production dynamics and taking the actions necessary to support performance as market conditions evolve. China remained a significant source of growth. Consolidated sales increased approximately 33% year-over-year despite a softer market, driven by strong production ramp-ups at customers such as NIO, Leapmotor and Nissan. While launch-related growth will naturally moderate over time, these programs reinforce our strategy of aligning with customers that are gaining share and expanding in attractive growth segments. The rest of Asia underperformed the broader market, primarily due to customer mix as certain customers faced greater volume pressures than the overall region. On the unconsolidated side, sales declined approximately 17% year-over-year, primarily in China, reflecting lower volumes on legacy ICE vehicle platforms as the market shifts towards NEVs as well as modest impacts from Middle East-related disruptions. Importantly, this trend largely reflects customer mix dynamics rather than any change in our competitive position. Overall, the key takeaway is that we're continuing to grow where the market is growing. Our customer portfolio launch cadence and exposure to leading programs that support above-market growth in our consolidated business even as we navigate differing regional and customer-specific dynamics. Moving on to Slide 13. Q3 adjusted EBITDA was $225 million or 5.7% of sales. During the quarter, we absorbed approximately $32 million of temporary operating related to Middle East conflict and customer supplier-driven disruptions, reflecting higher net input costs related for commodities, freight and operational inefficiencies. Excluding those items, EBITDA margin would have been in the mid-6% range, about 80 basis points higher than our reported results and are above our prior year levels. We believe that this better reflects the strength of the underlying business and the progress we're making through operational execution, commercial discipline and ongoing self-help actions. While these external pressures weighed on results, the operating model performed as expected, supporting our confidence in the business and our ability to deliver on our commitments. As per our usual format, the appendix waterfalls provide an additional insight into the regional details. I'll walk through these relatively quickly. In the Americas, adjusted EBITDA increased $13 million year-over-year to $125 million, supported by favorable volumes, partially offset by temporary customer and supplier-driven inefficiencies and Middle East conflict-related costs. In EMEA, adjusted EBITDA declined $7 million to $14 million. Volume and mix remained a headwind, but business performance improved through restructuring benefits and SG&A discipline, which helped offset part of the regional pressure. In Asia, adjusted EBITDA was $107 million, down $6 million year-over-year. The region remained highly profitable, but results reflected lower equity income, expected mix margin compression in China, lower ICE vehicle demand and higher launch investment to support our growth plans. Overall, the results reinforce the same message Jerome delivered in his opening remarks. The business is executing well through volatility. Temporary external pressures are weighing on near-term results, but the underlying operating performance remains resilient, and we remain focused on delivering our full year commitments. Let's move now to our cash flow walk on Slide 14. We generated $138 million of free cash flow in the third quarter, bringing year-to-date free cash flow to $161 million. There are a few important items to keep in mind as you think about our year-to-date cash performance. As you'll recall, our free cash flow generation is heavily weighted in the back half of the year due to seasonality of our business. This quarter benefited from approximately $45 million of customer payment timing, which we expect to reverse in the fourth quarter and reflected in our outlook. Year-to-date, free cash flow has benefited from strong operational execution, disciplined working capital management and lower restructuring cash spending compared to the prior year. As a reminder, we had a nonrecurring tax settlement that was paid out last quarter, and we've had an increase in capital expenditures this year to support growth initiatives. I would also note that our teams have done an excellent job proactively managing cash generation across the business. We have accelerated certain customer recoveries and tooling-related collections where possible and remain focused on working capital discipline, which helped strengthen our cash position entering the final quarter of the year. Turning to Slide 15. Our balance sheet remains strong and flexible, which is critical in today's operating environment. At quarter end, we had approximately $1.8 billion of total liquidity, including $924 million of cash and roughly $834 million of available revolver capacity, giving us substantial financial flexibility to manage volatility, support the business and remain disciplined in our capital allocation. As I highlighted on the previous slide, it's important to note that the quarter end cash balance included the approximate $45 million of customer payment timing, which we expect to reverse in the fourth quarter. The progress we've made strengthening the business was also recognized externally with Moody's upgrading Adient's corporate credit rating to Ba3 during the quarter. We view that as a validation of our improved balance sheet, consistent execution and disciplined financial management. Our leverage ratio ended the quarter at 1.7x, comfortably within our targeted range of 1.5 to 2x. Also mentioned that we have no near-term debt maturities. We've also returned capital to our shareholders, repurchasing approximately 1.3 million shares for $30 million during the quarter. As always, we'll remain disciplined and balanced in how we deploy capital, prioritizing long-term shareholder value while maintaining financial flexibility to support the business. Overall, we believe we're entering the final quarter of the year from a position of strength with a healthy balance sheet, ample liquidity and flexibility to navigate a dynamic operating environment. Turning to our updated outlook for fiscal '26. We are increasing our revenue guidance to approximately $15 billion, primarily reflecting improved customer production schedules and to a lesser extent, favorable foreign exchange. The higher revenue outlook is supported by recent launch activity, growth with key customers and expected strong execution across the business. At the same time, we are maintaining our adjusted EBITDA guidance of approximately $885 million and free cash flow guidance of approximately $130 million. While underlying operational performance remains solid, persistent headwinds resulting from the ongoing Middle East conflict such as elevated commodity and freight costs, are expected to pressure near-term results. As we enter Q4, our priorities remain clear, execute for our customers, manage the factors within our control, deliver on our commitments and position Adient to create value in fiscal year '27 and beyond. Before we open the line for questions, I want to spend a few moments on Slide 17 and briefly share our thoughts on a few of the key drivers likely to impact fiscal year '27 results. We will issue formal guidance for fiscal '27 in November as in prior years as the team continues to fine-tune and gain clarity on such items as vehicle production, foreign exchange, trade policy, input costs, capital expenditures and restructuring. That said, based on what we see today, we believe the business is positioned for above-market growth in the Americas and China, supported by onshoring wins, recent new and conquest awards and ramping programs with key customers, especially with our continued progress with domestic Chinese OEMs in our Asia business. In the Americas, that growth will be partially offset by planned exit of certain low-margin third-party metals business. We expect positive business performance to be driven by our focus on automation, restructuring, commercial discipline and continuous improvement across all disciplines. From a capital allocation perspective, our priorities remain unchanged. We expect to maintain a strong and flexible balance sheet, operate within our target leverage range and continue balancing investment and profitable growth with returning capital to our shareholders. As we've discussed, approximately $80 million remain under our current share repurchase authorization. Given our balance sheet position and cash generation profile, we expect the Board to increase the authorization later this year. So while it's still early, the underlying indicators support our confidence in the positive momentum of the business as we look towards fiscal 2027. And with that, operator, we can move to the question-and-answer portion of the call. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Joe Spak with UBS. Joseph Spak: Mark, maybe just to start on some of the higher Middle East costs and resins. And I just want to make sure I understand some of the commentary here. So, I guess you're going to sort of try to go back and retroactively get some payment for the higher costs incurred. We'll see, I guess, how successful that is. But your other comment about stabilization, I just want to make sure I understand that secondarily. Like does that mean that if that those price increases moderate from here, like you'll begin to be able to reprice for those higher prices, so that's less of a headwind. And when should we expect that to occur if it does stables? Mark Oswald: Yes. Good question. I guess I'd look at it in 2 fronts, Joe. So first of all, the costs that we're incurring there, you could break it up into 2 buckets, the Middle East cost, which for the quarter, call it about $20 million, that includes like higher freight, fuel and as you indicated, the resin costs or the commodity costs for our chemical foaming operations, right? For the foaming operations, we do have pass-throughs and escalators in place with about 90% of that business, right? So those refunds or those recoveries will come. It will obviously be on, call it, about a 2-quarter lag is what we typically experience. And so, with the war continuing, we would expect that to also continue into Q4, right, with some of the recovery starting obviously in Q4. So, for full year, call those Middle East costs somewhere in that $35 million to $40 million from where we are today. The other, call it, $10 million or $12 million that make up that $32 million that we called out this quarter is really the customer-driven costs, right? And those would be just inefficient operating patterns at certain of our customers as they continue to work with what I'd call inefficient operating patterns there. So that was about $12 million for the quarter, bringing that total to $32 million. So, we would look as we go into Q4, those to start to subside, right? So net-net, as I look at full year, that $32 million probably becomes somewhere around $35 million, $40 million for the full year. Does that help? Joseph Spak: Yes. That does. And then the second question is, I guess, just on restructuring. And I know you sort of -- was on sort of your list of potential challenges, I guess, for next year. I guess just to maybe start, is there an updated restructuring number for this year? I think you previously mentioned something like $120 million, but it looks like it's only $77 million year-to-date. So, I don't know if that means there's a larger amount coming or maybe some things are coming a little bit better. And then just bigger picture with concern over some customers restructuring in Europe, even though I know that's probably not necessarily happening next year. But just to help level set investors, like if you assume the worst case and you had to like completely close the facility, like what -- would that cost you like $30 million? Or like can you sort of ballpark frame what that would sort of cost so we can level set expectations? Mark Oswald: Sure. I'll start, and Jerome, feel free to jump in. So, for the full year, we have not changed our outlook. So call that somewhere in that $120 million range, right? As I look into '27, that's one of the elements that we said we still need to get clarity on. We're working with customers as they look at their platforms, they look at their end of production, where they're going to move production to. That's the big wildcard, Joe. So, you're absolutely right with your magnitude, right? If there's a certain platform that all of a sudden is in one of our facilities and it comes out, you could be looking at a bill of $30 million or more. And that's why Jerome and I, as we went through this year, we said we'd love to give you like what the next 1, 2, 3 years of restructuring charges looks like so that you guys could have clarity. The problem is we just don't have that clarity yet from our customers. And so, we'll continue to if there is restructuring to do it in a very efficient way, we've come up with, I'd say, different tactics in the back past where we've done long distance, for example, where we've been able to save on restructuring charges. But that is really the big wildcard as we go into 2027. Joseph Spak: Is it fair to say that -- I mean, I know you sort of talked about sort of like the more long-term normalized restructuring level is lower. But is it fair to say that given timing and some of your initiatives and obviously, some of the restructuring that you're doing now rolls off that it's unlikely to get worse? Or still... Mark Oswald: Yes. I think it's -- yes, it's just probably too early to tell only because, again, I'm waiting to hear from our customers in terms of what their final plans are. Do I think that over time, it should trend down? Yes, but it's going to be very lumpy because it's all going to be dependent on when certain of those programs actually end production. For certain of the regions like Americas, for example, Joe, they've done a great job at what I call self-funding, right? So, if they have to shut a facility down, we've done very good at selling the plant, selling the facilities right. So there are, what I'd say, different offsets to that, too, that we also have to, what I'd say, fine-tune as we go through the next couple of months because there will be some asset sales, there'll be some building sales, right, that we could lean on to help out with what I'd call the distributable cash that obviously gets put back to our owners. Operator: Our next question comes from Emmanuel Rosner with Wolfe Research. Emmanuel Rosner: My first question is on Asia and China. Just for China, can you just dimension for us your exposure to exports from the region to other regions, to what extent you're sort of like broadly in line with the sort of industry weight more or less? And then on Asia, just with the direction of margins year-to-date, maybe a couple of points or lower. Just how do we think about it on a go-forward basis, please? Jerome Dorlack: I'll take the first one, Emmanuel, and thank you very much for the question. As far as our export exposure in China directly, we are below what the total market export rate is today. A lot of that is driven by our historical joint ventures that we were engaged in when we wound those down. Yanfeng would have kept a large presence with a lot of the exporters there. And now we focus more on certainly rotating our portfolio to the domestics, but then also rotating it towards domestic production that will remain in China that we view as more durable in the longer term. So we are under-indexed to total export volume in China. And I hope that answers your question on that part, and then I'll turn it over to Mark for the second one. Mark Oswald: Does that help, Emmanuel? Emmanuel Rosner: Yes, yes. Mark Oswald: And then for your second question, just in terms of the margin contraction there, obviously, we've been very transparent as we've gone through the year there. We did say that's going to be very manageable, call it, 100 basis points or so. You've seen the outperformance there. So again, big picture, as long as I can continue to grow my top line, convert that into EBITDA and free cash flow, right? I view that as very manageable. The team is also doing a very good job at mitigating how much of that margin contraction there is. They're using, as Jerome indicated, whether it's automation, they're looking at different techniques, operating patterns over within the region over there. So again, extreme focus on minimizing the impact of that contraction. I still look for that region. It's still a very, what I'd say, profitable region, very cash-generative region for us, and it will remain that way. Emmanuel Rosner: Got it. And then just a question on free cash flow, please. So last quarter, you had showed walk towards normalized free cash flow, which was maybe something like $100 million more than what you have this year. About half of it is lower restructuring. And I understand that this is still TBD as we look into next year in terms of restructuring spend. I was curious about sort of like some of the other buckets, like are those -- would those still be on track to improve for 2027? Jerome Dorlack: Okay. I'll start with the response, and then I'll hand it over to Mark. I think as we look at that normalized cash flow and really then the distributable cash flow that we believe is the potential of Adient. Long term, that is still our clear objective and where we clearly view that we can get to. I think as you begin to size up '27 and kind of turning back to what Joe's question was, restructuring will be an unknown that we'll sort through. On the capital expenditure side, which will be another large bucket, would anticipate an uptick in capital expenditure given just the growth that we're going to see that we talked about earlier in the Americas, in China and also our drive for automation. As we look to expand margins and drive margins higher, automation is going to be a key lever associated with that. And that's why we haven't called it out yet what we expect capital expenditures to be because it's just too early to call based on some of our more recent wins and the timing associated with them and when the capital will roll in. On the other buckets, such as interest expense, we will continue to be prudent on our capital allocation program. And then it is worth noting, as Mark said, taxes are notably higher this year. due to a one-time payment that we had in one of our jurisdictions. We expect that to trend towards a more normal level as we get into already fiscal year '27. Mark, anything else to add? Mark Oswald: No, Jerome. [indiscernible] Emmanuel Rosner: Okay. You had one more bar in there, which was fiscal '25 pull-ahead actions of $30 million. I assume that, that's still -- that would still not recur going forward, right? Jerome Dorlack: Correct. Correct. Operator: Our next question comes from Rajat Gupta with JPMorgan. Rajat Gupta: I just wanted to follow up on like just the Asia and China margin question. You had expected like 100 basis points China margin compression this year. Curious if you could quantify like how it was year-to-date and how we should think about just the fourth quarter and into 2027? And I have a quick follow-up. Jerome Dorlack: Yes, sure. So, we -- you're absolutely correct. We did indicate about 100 basis points of compression. If I look at this year, I would expect us to track pretty close to that as we go through the balance of this year. Again, it just when I think about the mix of vehicles, the launch of vehicles that come on, what's happening from the commercial side of the business, right? When you think about commercial recoveries, that all plays into what I'd say, the cadence of that margin as you progress through the year. And so again, it's going to be lumpy between quarters, but I think that 100 basis points is pretty much the bogey that we're looking for. Rajat Gupta: Any read into 2027 yet on the trajectory for those margins? Jerome Dorlack: Yes. Again, early days, we're still going through, obviously, certain of the fine-tuning there. I think what we do have very good insight is into the growth over there, what vehicles are going to be launching, what we're winning business with. As I indicated, we expect that to remain significantly above market over there. The team also right now is going through, I'd say, the fine-tuning for what they're going to be doing in terms of -- from an operational perspective, right, what type of automation tools they're going to implement at the plants, et cetera, right? So, as they go through and fine-tune that, obviously, that will weigh on the performance of whether or not we could contain the margins even, I'd say, closer to less than 100 basis points. But too early, but I'd say that overall, still very manageable in terms of what we see in the forecast for remainder of '26 and into '27. Rajat Gupta: Understood. And just a follow-up, the China export question like in reverse. I'm curious like what you're hearing from some of your European OEMs who export into China. Curious like how -- has there been any change in like launch timing, any delays that you're observing? Just curious what the latest conversations have suggested and how you feel about the 2027 margin trajectory in the region. Jerome Dorlack: You broke up a little bit, but I think part of the question was around exports in our European business into China. And given our profile -- yes, so given our profile there, and even if you go back several years where Europe was a net exporter, they're now a net importer. And our exposure to exported platforms into China was generally, I'd say, fairly low with the exception of S-Class, where we supplied all the components on S-Class, and that was a large exporter into China. Outside of that, I wouldn't say significant exposure or risk on a go-forward basis on vehicle platforms that are exported over into China. As far as the margin profile of our European business going forward, Mark already talked about, we already have now a clearer line of sight on metals projects that will start to roll off in fiscal year '27, which will present a tailwind for us. We also have positive balance in of other projects and then some of the restructuring actions that were taken starting in '25, completed through '26, taking hold as well in '27. So all else being equal, we would expect to see margin expansion in our European operations next year. Operator: Our next question comes from Colin Langan with Wells Fargo. Colin Langan: Just a follow-up on Europe. I mean, on your slide, you indicated you expect outperformance in the Americas and Asia next year, but not Europe. Is that just purely the roll-off -- because you just mentioned a second ago that you have sort of backfill business there. Was that the roll-off of the metals business? Or is there like a customer mix issue that's kind of dragging the performance down? And any way to remind us the size of the metals business? Is that something like $500 million that's going to eventually roll off? Or is it bigger or smaller? Mark Oswald: Yes, Colin. So that is primarily the driver next year. I'd say next year, you're probably talking about $90 million of it rolling off followed by '28, another chunk of it, probably a little bit bigger in '28 rolling off versus '27. But for planning purposes, yes, $90 million next year rolling off is what you should be penciling in. Jerome Dorlack: Yes. And to the first part of your question, as Mark said, in particular, a portion of that is the metals business rolling off there. I do think I wouldn't necessarily refer to it as a customer mix issue as much as it is, it's been targeted by us on certain platforms where we've just deprioritized them or exited them, coupled with certain vehicle assembly plants being idled in Europe where we had exposure to. So it's really a mix of all 3 of those, Colin. Colin Langan: Got it. That makes sense. And then one of your top competitors talks a lot about automation. I noticed it was on your slides and in your commentary today. I mean, where do you think you stand in sort of the need to automate your production and how you think you are relative to your peers? Is that a disadvantage? Or do you think you have some catching up to do? Do you think you need to spend more there in automation? Any thoughts there? Jerome Dorlack: The first part of your question, I think automation in certain regions we operate in is an absolute necessity. If you look at some of the more recent union agreements that have been settled, that's all public information, you can see the wage inflation that we're facing. And we're committed to working to offset that through essentially looking at our supply chains, working with our partners in the plant and automation where required. So automation is going to be a necessity moving forward. And that's part of -- if you go back to the color I added to Emmanuel's question on cash flows in '27, we will see an increase in automation spending in order to expand margins and not just keep pace, but really drive it forward with earnest. In terms of how we're positioned versus our competitors, I think if you look across our portfolios, I believe we are competitively positioned across all of them in terms of the technology we have available to us, the partners that we work with on the outside to drive the automation through and where we're able to implement it at scale. I think what we need to be cognizant of is we are very targeted in where we deploy automation and making sure that we're not trading a variable cost such as labor that we can flex on some of our more unstable programs with a fixed cost that you then you're essentially stuck with and it becomes a much more difficult commercial negotiation. So, we've been very targeted in how we deploy automation in our JIT factories based on kind of the run rate stability and ongoing prospects of some of those chip platforms. If you contrast that to trim, metals and foam, where we're really, I'd say, leading or world-class in those areas, it has been a very aggressive deployment because we share those factories across multiple customers, we're better able to flex the fixed costs. Hopefully, that answers your question on automation. Operator: Our next question comes from Dan Levy with Barclays. Dan Levy: I wanted to start out with just what's going on with Americas and the backlog. Maybe you could just talk to this very strong outperformance you saw in the third quarter, which I know you said is unlikely to recur. But the additional piece of this is you talked about above-market growth in the Americas. At one point in the past, you had mentioned that you could see Americas growth over market at mid-single digits. You've also said at some point that there could be $400 million of potential backlog opportunity in '27, which would equate to a pretty significant step-up of revenue. So maybe you could just go through some of the program revenue dynamics for the Americas business. Jerome Dorlack: Yes, I'll start, and then I'll hand it over to Mark. In the Americas business on our high return on capital product lines. And when we talk about those, we're thinking about JIT, trim and foam. I think we are -- we do have a line of sight to above-market growth on those. We talked about the backlog with the onshoring. A good deal of those onshoring wins were fully integrated or will become fully integrated in the '28 time frame. And so I think when we look at those product lines, we continue to see above-market growth. Is it 2%, 3% or 5%? I think we'll have to see how mix shapes up next year and how quickly some of our truck platforms recover, that's going to be key. And I think you have to weigh against that when you look at the total region revenues is the wind off of metals programs, which we've talked about. We continue to talk about that, and we will continue to see that as we move through fiscal year '27 and '28. So while the region as a whole may be slightly above market growth to potentially flat to market growth and our high return on capital product lines, we will see above-market growth, which will lead to margin expansion. And as we look at kind of net of automation deployment, expanding cash flows. Dan Levy: As a follow-up, I wanted to just ask about some of the dynamics of mix and the conversion to revenue. So in the second -- in the third quarter, we saw volume mix on the EBITDA line was negative 2% on $147 million of incremental revenue. Maybe you could just explain that. But as we go into '27 and you have the step-up of Americas backlog, you have a wind down of revenue of programs where the margin was fairly low, what types of incremental margins we should expect on the revenue dynamics? Should it be theoretically higher than what you've seen in the past because you have this lower-margin business rolling off? Mark Oswald: Yes. I think -- and I'll start there, and Jerome, feel free to jump in. But what we've typically said is somewhere in that 16%, 17% range is what I would look at for my incremental. And I wouldn't think that next year would be any different from that. I think when you look at this past year, for example, we've been absorbing certain of the Middle East costs, certain of the customer-driven costs, right, despite some of the higher volumes there. So I think that gets behind us as we go into 2027. As Jerome mentioned, we will have some of that metals business rolling off next year, call it about $100 million of metals business rolling off in the Americas. So again, I'd say that you're probably right around that 16%, 17% incremental as you see that revenue roll in next week -- next year. Operator: At this time, I'll turn the call back over to the speakers. Linda Conrad: Thank you, Shirley. Thank you, everyone, for your interest in Adient. We appreciate your interest. And if you have any follow-up questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. As a reminder, we will be in New York City next week at the JPMorgan Conference. Hope to see many of you there. Thank you, and have a nice day. Operator: Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. We thank you for your participation. At this time, you may disconnect your lines. Before you buy stock in Adient Plc, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Adient Plc wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $403,337!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,334,946!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 958% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 214% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 12, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Adient (ADNT) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Adient plc ADNT reported adjusted earnings of 48 cents per share in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, which increased 6.7% year over year but missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 53 cents by 9.4%. Net sales rose 5% to $3.93 billion and topped the consensus mark of $3.70 billion by 6.1%.Sales benefited from favorable foreign exchange, stronger volumes in the Americas and Asia, and recent launches. Consolidated sales in China increased about 33% year over year, supported by production ramps at NIO, Leapmotor and Nissan. ADNT generated adjusted EBITDA of $225 million, down slightly from $226 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 30 basis points to 5.7%, as the company absorbed about $32 million of temporary headwinds tied to the Middle East conflict and customer- and supplier-driven disruptions.Higher commodity and freight expenses contributed to the pressure, along with operating inefficiencies. Roughly $20 million of the quarterly headwind was Middle East-related, including freight, fuel and resin costs. About 90% of the foam business has pass-throughs or escalators, though recoveries typically occur with about a two-quarter lag. Adient price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Adient Quote Americas sales increased 9.5% year over year to $1.93 billion. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $125 million from $112 million, while margin edged up to 6.5% from 6.4%, supported by higher volumes with key customers despite added input costs and temporary operating inefficiencies.EMEA sales declined 4.5% to $1.21 billion, and adjusted EBITDA fell to $14 million from $21 million as lower customer volumes weighed on results. Asia sales climbed 12.3% to $810 million, but adjusted EBITDA decreased to $107 million from $113 million amid lower equity income, China mix pressure, softer ICE demand and launch investments. ADNT generated $205 million of operating cash flow in the quarter, up from $172 million a year ago. Capital expenditures were $67 million, resulting in free cash flow of $138 million versus $115 million in the prior-year period. The quarter benefited from about $45 million of customer payment timing that is expected to reverse in the fourth quarter.Cash and cash equivalents stood at $924 million as of June 30, 2026, down from $958 million as of Sept. 30, 2025. Total liquidity was about $1.8 billion, including roughly $834 million of available revolver capacity, while the leverage ratio was 1.7 times. The company repurchased $30 million of shares during the quarter, bringing fiscal year-to-date repurchases to $55 million. As of June 30, 2026, $80 million of shares remain under the current share repurchase authorization. Adient raised its fiscal 2026 consolidated sales outlook to about $15 billion from roughly $14.8 billion, reflecting improved customer production schedules and, to a lesser extent, favorable foreign exchange. The company kept its adjusted EBITDA forecast at approximately $885 million.Free cash flow guidance remains about $130 million, while capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $300 million. The company expects Middle East-related pressures, including elevated chemical and freight costs and lower export volumes in certain markets, to continue weighing on near-term profitability. It sees full-year Middle East costs at roughly $35-$40 million based on current conditions. ADNT continued to build its future revenue base through new awards and premium-content launches. Recent wins include the Ram Dakota, Honda Pilot and Tata Nexon, while the company also secured new business on the FAW-Volkswagen VW416/5 program in China.Adient is also moving seating innovations into production. ProForce Massage Flow won business on the Changan Avatr E518 and Dongfeng-Voyah H77B, while the Leapmotor D99 includes zero-gravity seating and power swivel content. In EMEA, Adient is supporting vertically integrated launches for the Volvo EX60 and Mercedes-Benz AMG.EA-GT.ADNT currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. General Motors Company GM reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.57 per share, up 41.3% year over year. The figure beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.13 by 14.06%. Revenues increased 1.9% to $48.03 billion and surpassed the consensus estimate of $46.56 billion by 3.15%. Strong pricing, lower costs and disciplined incentives supported results. General Motors raised its full-year adjusted EBIT guidance to $14-$16 billion from $13.5-$15.5 billion. Adjusted earnings are now projected at $12-$14 per share, up from the prior range of $11.50-$13.50.Tesla, Inc. TSLA reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of 33 cents per share, which declined 17.5% year over year. The figure missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 50 cents by 34%. Revenues advanced 25.5% to $28.24 billion and surpassed the consensus estimate of $25.81 billion by 9.41%. Tesla expects 2026 capital expenditures to exceed $25 billion and rise further over the next two to three years. Genuine Parts Company GPC reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $2.15 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.10 by 2.38%. The bottom line increased 2.4% from $2.10 in the year-ago quarter. Revenues rose 6% year over year to $6.54 billion and surpassed the consensus estimate of $6.39 billion by 2.36%. Genuine Parts reaffirmed its 2026 adjusted earnings guidance of $7.50-$8 per share and total sales growth outlook of 3-5.5%. Genuine Parts ended June with $2.3 billion of liquidity, including $559 million in cash. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Adient (ADNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Genuine Parts Company (GPC) : Free Stock Analysis Report General Motors Company (GM) : Free Stock Analysis Report Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Find your next quality investment with Simply Wall St's easy and powerful screener, trusted by over 7 million individual investors worldwide. Adient (NYSE:ADNT) just reported its third quarter results alongside an update on its multi year share repurchase program, giving you fresh information on both current profitability and how management is returning capital. See our latest analysis for Adient. Adient's 1 day share price return of 3.02% to US$19.42 came after the earnings and buyback update, although the share price is still down 12.21% over 90 days. The 1 year total shareholder return of 11.69% and 5 year total shareholder return of 53.38% point to weak longer term momentum. If this kind of capital return story has your attention, it can be useful to widen the lens and see what else is out there by checking the 19 top founder-led companies Given Adient's mixed share price record and the latest reaction to earnings and buybacks, it is worth asking whether the stock is now tracking the underlying business or whether it is just another swing in sentiment, as the valuation section explores next. Adient's most followed valuation story points to a fair value well above the last close of $19.42, which raises clear questions about what the underlying growth and profit assumptions look like. Read the complete narrative. Want to see how this EV seating push turns into a higher valuation for Adient? The narrative focuses on gradually improving margins, modest revenue gains and a very specific future earnings multiple. Curious which of those assumptions does the heavy lifting in that fair value gap? Result: Fair Value of $31.42 (UNDERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, Adient still faces pressure from weaker volumes in regions like EMEA and China, as well as restructuring efforts in Europe that could keep margins under strain. Find out about the key risks to this Adient narrative. Analysts see Adient as undervalued on future earnings, yet current trading tells a different story. The stock sits on a P/E of 31.2x versus 19.4x for the US Auto Components industry, and above its own fair ratio of 28.3x. That premium suggests less margin for error. Which signal do you trust more? See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. Mixed signals on Adient so far. For a clearer view, move quickly, review the full picture and weigh both the 3 key rewards and 3 important warning signs. If you stop with Adient, you miss other opportunities. Use the Simply Wall Street Screener to quickly spot fresh ideas that could better fit your portfolio. Target potential mispricings by reviewing companies that our tools flag as promising in the 52 high quality undervalued stocks. Strengthen the defensive side of your portfolio by scanning for companies in the 83 resilient stocks with low risk scores. Get ahead of the crowd by checking the screener containing 21 high quality undiscovered gems before everyone else starts talking about them. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include ADNT. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

PLYMOUTH, Mich., Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Adient (NYSE: ADNT), a global leader in automotive seating, today announced its third quarter 2026 financial results. Q3 GAAP net income and EPS diluted of $25M and $0.32, respectively; Q3 Adj.-EPS diluted of $0.48 Q3 Adj.-EBITDA of $225M, essentially flat vs. Q3 FY2025, despite ~$32M of temporary headwinds, stemming from the Middle East conflict and customer/supplier driven inefficiencies Gross debt and net debt totaled ~$2.4B and ~$1.5B, respectively, at June 30, 2026; cash and cash equivalents of $924M at June 30, 2026 Strong free cash flow generation during the quarter enabled $30M of share repurchases in Q3; YTD share repurchases through June 30, 2026 total $55M For complete details and to see reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures, visit the events section of the Adient investor website at https://investors.adient.com/events-and-presentations/events to download the full press release and earnings presentation. Investor analyst conference call:Adient's president and chief executive officer, Jerome Dorlack, and executive vice president and chief financial officer, Mark Oswald, will host a conference call today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern to discuss the results. To participate by telephone, please dial 888-790-3145 (U.S.) or 630-395-0443 (international) 15 minutes prior to the start time of the call and ask to be connected to the Adient conference call. The conference passcode is ADIENT. About Adient:Adient (NYSE: ADNT) is a global leader in automotive seating. With more than 65,000 employees in 29 countries, Adient operates ~200 manufacturing/assembly plants worldwide. We produce and deliver automotive seating for all major OEMs. From complete seating systems to individual components, our expertise spans every step of the automotive seat-making process. We take our products from research and design to engineering and manufacturing — and into millions of vehicles every year. For more information, please visit www.adient.com. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:Adient has made statements in this document that are forward-looking and, therefore, are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements in this document other than statements of historical fact are statements that are, or could be, deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this document, statements regarding Adient's expectations for its deleveraging activities, the timing, benefits and outcomes of those activities, as well as its future financial position, sales, costs, earnings, cash flows, other measures of results of operations, capital expenditures or debt levels and plans, objectives, market position, outlook, targets, guidance or goals are forward-looking statements. Words such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "should," "forecast," "project" or "plan" or terms of similar meaning are also generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Adient cautions that these statements are subject to numerous important risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, some of which are beyond Adient's control, that could cause Adient's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, risks related to: the effects of local and national economic, credit and capital market conditions (including the persistence of high interest rates, vehicle affordability and volatile currency exchange rates) on the global economy, increased competitive pressures in the EMEA and Asia regions from Chinese OEMs, uncertainties in U.S. administrative policy regarding trade agreements, tariffs and other international trade relations, automotive vehicle production levels, mix and schedules, as well as the concentration of exposure to certain automotive manufacturers particularly new entrants in the China market, shifts in market shares among vehicles, vehicle segments or away from vehicles on which Adient has significant content, changes in consumer demand, risks associated with Adient's joint ventures, volatile energy markets, Adient's ability and timing of customer recoveries for increased input costs, the availability of raw materials and component products (including components required by Adient's customers for the manufacture of vehicles), risks associated with warranty and product recall and product liability exposures, geopolitical uncertainties such as the Middle East and Ukraine conflicts and the impact on the regional and global economies and additional pressure on commodities, supply chain and vehicle production, the ability of Adient to effectively launch new business at forecast and profitable levels, the ability of Adient to successfully identify suitable opportunities for organic investment and/or acquisitions and to integrate such investments and/or acquisitions, work stoppages, including due to strikes, supply chain disruptions and similar events, wage inflationary pressures due to labor shortages and new labor negotiations, the ability of Adient to execute its restructuring plans and achieve the desired benefit, the ability of Adient to meet debt service requirements and terms of future financing, the impact of global tax reform legislation, the impact of more aggressive positions taken by tax authorities, potential adjustment of the value of deferred tax assets, global climate change and related emphasis on sustainability matters by various stakeholders, and the ability of Adient to achieve its sustainability-related goals, cancellation of, or changes to, commercial arrangements, and the ability of Adient to identify, recruit and retain key leadership. A detailed discussion of risks related to Adient's business is included in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Adient's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on November 18, 2025, in Adient's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2026, and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC, available at www.sec.gov. Potential investors and others should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements and should not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made only as of the date of this document, unless otherwise specified, and, except as required by law, Adient assumes no obligation, and disclaims any obligation, to update such statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this document. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information:This document also contains non-GAAP financial information because Adient's management believes it may assist investors in evaluating Adient's on-going operations. Adient believes these non-GAAP disclosures provide important supplemental information to management and investors regarding financial and business trends relating to Adient's financial condition and results of operations. Investors should not consider these non-GAAP measures as alternatives to the related GAAP measures. Non-GAAP measures include Adjusted EBIT, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted net income, Adjusted effective tax rate, Adjusted earnings per share, Adjusted equity income, Adjusted interest expense, Free cash flow and Net debt. For further detail and reconciliations to their closest GAAP equivalents, please see the appendix. Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures related to FY 2026 guidance have not been provided due to the unreasonable efforts it would take to provide such reconciliations. This document also contains the key performance indicator of business performance, which is defined as the difference in period-over-period Adjusted EBITDA excluding production volume/mix, equity income, foreign exchange and net commodity pricing. Management believes this key performance indicator encompasses the significant drivers of the performance of the business that are within management's ability to influence and may assist investors in evaluating Adient's on-going operations and provide important supplemental information regarding financial and business trends relating to Adient's financial condition and results of operations. Investors should not consider this key performance indicator as an alternative to our GAAP financial results. ADNT-FN View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/adient-reports-third-quarter-financial-results-reaffirms-earnings-and-fcf-outlook-for-fy26-302842873.html

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Revenue: Consolidated revenue was approximately $3.9 billion, up 5% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA: $225 million, flat compared with the prior year, with a margin of 5.7% of sales. Adjusted Net Income: Flat year-over-year at $38 million, or $0.48 per share. Free Cash Flow: $138 million generated in Q3, bringing year-to-date free cash flow to $161 million. Americas Adjusted EBITDA: Increased $13 million year over year to $125 million. EMEA Adjusted EBITDA: Declined $7 million to $14 million. Asia Adjusted EBITDA: $107 million, down $6 million year-over-year. China Sales Growth: Consolidated sales increased approximately 33% year-over-year. Share Repurchases: Returned $30 million to shareholders in Q3, bringing year-to-date repurchases to $55 million. Liquidity: Approximately $1.8 billion of total liquidity, including $924 million of cash and roughly $834 million of available revolver capacity. Leverage Ratio: Ended the quarter at 1.7 times. Fiscal 2026 Revenue Guidance: Increased to approximately $15 billion. Fiscal 2026 Adjusted EBITDA Guidance: Maintained at approximately $885 million. Fiscal 2026 Free Cash Flow Guidance: Maintained at approximately $130 million. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Signs with ANGI. Is ADNT fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 05, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Consolidated revenue increased 5% year-over-year to approximately $3.9 billion, driven by strong volumes in the Americas and Asia. Adjusted EBITDA remained flat at $225 million despite external headwinds, with underlying performance showing an 80 basis point margin improvement when excluding temporary costs. The company returned $30 million to shareholders through share repurchases in Q3, bringing year-to-date buybacks to $55 million, and expects the Board to increase the authorization later this year. Adient received multiple customer recognitions, including GM Supplier of the Year for the fifth consecutive year and NIO's highest supplier award, reflecting strong customer relationships. The company secured new platform wins (e.g., Ram Dakota, Honda Pilot, Tata Nexon) and is commercializing innovations like ProForce Massage Flow, supporting long-term revenue visibility. Moody's upgraded Adient's corporate credit rating to Ba3, validating improved balance sheet strength and disciplined financial management. The company maintains a strong balance sheet with $1.8 billion in total liquidity and leverage at 1.7 times, within its targeted range. Asia remains accretive, with China sales up 33% year-over-year, driven by growth with customers like NIO and Leap Motor, and the rest of Asia generates nearly $2 billion in annual revenue. The company is investing in automation and digital manufacturing to improve productivity and operational flexibility, particularly in response to production volatility. Management expects positive business performance in fiscal 2027, driven by above-market growth in the Americas and China, and the roll-off of underperforming metals business in EMEA. Adjusted EBITDA was flat year-over-year, absorbing approximately $32 million in temporary costs related to the Middle East conflict and customer/supplier disruptions. The Middle East conflict continues to pressure results, with elevated commodity and freight costs expected to persist into Q4, totaling $35-$40 million for the full year. EMEA remains challenging, with lower customer production levels and market softness pressuring volumes and profitability, leading to a $7 million decline in adjusted EBITDA. Asia adjusted EBITDA declined $6 million year-over-year due to lower equity income, expected margin compression in China, and higher launch investment costs. China's mix shift toward local OEMs is expected to cause additional margin compression in fiscal 2027, with the impact occurring more gradually than initially anticipated. Free cash flow year-to-date is only $161 million, with a $45 million customer payment timing benefit expected to reverse in Q4, and full-year guidance remains at $130 million. The company faces uncertainty regarding restructuring costs in fiscal 2027, with potential charges of $30 million or more if customer platforms end production, and no clarity on customer plans. The Americas' strong outgrowth is expected to moderate into fiscal 2027 as lower-margin third-party metals business rolls off, impacting overall regional growth. Rest of Asia underperformed the broader market due to customer mix, with certain customers facing greater volume pressures. The company expects an increase in capital expenditures in fiscal 2027 to support growth and automation initiatives, which could pressure free cash flow. Q: Can you provide more detail on the Middle East conflict-related costs, the potential for recovery, and how we should think about these headwinds into Q4 and the full year?A: Mark Oswald (CFO): We break these costs into two buckets. The Middle East costs were about $20 million in Q3, including higher freight, fuel, and resin costs for our chemical foaming operations. We have pass-throughs and escalators in place for about 90% of that business, so recoveries will come, but with a typical two-quarter lag. We expect these costs to continue into Q4, with some recovery starting then. For the full year, we expect Middle East costs to be in the $35 million to $40 million range. The other $10 million to $12 million of the $32 million we called out is from customer-driven inefficiencies, which we expect to subside in Q4. Q: Regarding restructuring, is there an updated number for this year, and can you frame the potential cost if a customer program ends and you need to close a facility?A: Mark Oswald (CFO): We have not changed our full-year outlook, which remains around $120 million. For fiscal '27, restructuring is a big wild card as we wait for customer clarity on platform end-of-production dates. If a platform in one of our facilities comes out, you could be looking at a bill of $30 million or more. We are using different tactics, like long-distance moves, to save on charges, but we can't provide multi-year clarity until our customers finalize their plans. Over time, restructuring should trend down, but it will be lumpy. In the Americas, we've done a great job at self-funding by selling plants and facilities to offset costs. Q: Can you discuss your export exposure from China and the margin direction for the Asia region?A: Jerome Dorlack (CEO): Our direct export exposure in China is below the total market export rate, driven by our historical JV wind-downs. We are under-indexed to total export volume and are focused on rotating our portfolio toward domestic production that remains in China, which we view as more durable. Mark Oswald (CFO): On margins, we've been transparent about expecting roughly 100 basis points of compression in China this year. As long as we can grow the top line and convert that into EBITDA and free cash flow, it's manageable. The team is mitigating the impact through automation and different operating techniques. The region remains very profitable and cash-generative. Q: Can you quantify the China margin compression year-to-date and provide a trajectory into fiscal 2027?A: Mark Oswald (CFO): We indicated about 100 basis points of compression this year, and we expect to track pretty close to that. The cadence is lumpy between quarters due to vehicle mix, launches, and commercial recoveries, but 100 basis points is the bogey. For 2027, it's early days, but we have good insight into growth and new vehicle launches. The team is fine-tuning operational plans, including automation tools, which will determine if we can contain the margin compression to less than 100 basis points. Overall, it remains very manageable. Q: What are you hearing from European OEMs exporting into China, and how does that impact the 2027 margin trajectory in the region?A: Jerome Dorlack (CEO): Our exposure to European platforms exported into China is fairly low, with the exception of the S-Class, where we supply all components. Outside of that, there isn't significant risk. For the European margin profile, we have clear line of sight on metals projects rolling off in fiscal '27, which is a tailwind. We also have a positive balance of other projects and restructuring actions taking hold. All else being equal, we expect margin expansion in our European operations next year. Q: You expect outperformance in the Americas and Asia next year, but not Europe. Is that purely the roll-off of the metals business, and can you size that business?A: Mark Oswald (CFO): That is primarily the driver next year. We're talking about roughly $90 million of metals business rolling off in fiscal '27, followed by a slightly bigger chunk in '28. Jerome Dorlack (CEO): It's not just a customer mix issue. It's a combination of targeted exits on certain platforms we've deprioritized, coupled with vehicle assembly plants being idled in Europe where we had exposure. Q: Where do you stand on automation relative to your peers, and do you need to increase spending there?A: Jerome Dorlack (CEO): Automation is an absolute necessity in certain regions, especially given recent union agreements and wage inflation. We will see an increase in automation spending to expand margins. We believe we are competitively positioned versus our peers in terms of technology and partners. However, we are very targeted in where we deploy automation, ensuring we don't trade a variable cost like labor for a fixed cost on unstable programs. In our JIT factories, we are selective based on run rate stability, but in trim, metals, and foam, we are world-class and have deployed automation aggressively since those facilities serve multiple customers. Q: Can you discuss the strong outperformance in the Americas and the program revenue dynamics, including the potential backlog opportunity for '27?A: Jerome Dorlack (CEO): In our high return on capital product lines (JIT, trim, and foam), we have line of sight to above-market growth. Many of the onshoring wins will become fully integrated in the '28 timeframe. We expect 2% to 5% above-market growth, depending on mix and the recovery of truck platforms. However, this is weighed against the wind-off of metals programs, which will continue through '27 and '28. While the region as a whole may be slightly above market to flat, our high-return product lines will see above-market growth, leading to margin expansion and expanding cash flows. Q: Given the mix dynamics and the roll-off of lower-margin metals business, what type of incremental margins should we expect on revenue growth into '27?A: Mark Oswald (CFO): We've typically said to look at a 16% to 17% incremental margin, and I wouldn't expect next year to be any different. This past year, we've been absorbing Middle East and customer-driven costs despite higher volumes. As those get behind us and with about $100 million of metals business rolling off in the Americas, you should expect around that 16% to 17% incremental margin For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Adient (ADNT) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.48 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.53 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.45 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -9.43%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this automotive seating and interiors supplier would post earnings of $0.37 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.52, delivering a surprise of +40.54%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. Adient, which belongs to the Zacks Automotive - Original Equipment industry, posted revenues of $3.93 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 6.08%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $3.74 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Adient shares have added about 10.4% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13%. While Adient has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Adient was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.73 on $3.63 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $2.13 on $14.8 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Automotive - Original Equipment is currently in the bottom 28% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Another stock from the same industry, Atmus Filtration Technologies (ATMU), has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 7. This industrial filtration product company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.79 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +5.3%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 0.7% higher over the last 30 days to the current level. Atmus Filtration Technologies' revenues are expected to be $510.5 million, up 12.6% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Adient (ADNT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. (ATMU) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Interested in Adient? Here are five stocks we like better. Q3 revenue rose 5% to approximately $3.9 billion, but adjusted EBITDA remained flat at $225 million as Middle East-related commodity and freight costs, customer disruptions and inefficiencies pressured margins. Adient maintained its fiscal 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance of approximately $885 million and free-cash-flow outlook of $130 million, while raising revenue guidance to roughly $15 billion. The company generated $138 million in quarterly free cash flow, held $1.8 billion in liquidity and repurchased $30 million of shares. Management expects temporary disruption costs to ease, though China margin compression and the exit from low-margin metals operations will weigh on future results. Is Adient’s guidance cut a positive sign for the auto suppliers? Adient (NYSE:ADNT) reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of approximately $3.9 billion, up 5% from a year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA was flat at $225 million as conflict-related commodity and freight costs, customer production disruptions and operating inefficiencies weighed on profitability. Adjusted net income was $38 million, or $0.48 per share, unchanged from the prior-year period. The automotive seating supplier generated $138 million in free cash flow during the quarter, bringing year-to-date free cash flow to $161 million. → SpaceX’s First Earnings Report Could Decide Whether Shorts or Bulls Have Control Can These 3 Stocks Soar On Triple-Digit Earnings Increases? President and Chief Executive Officer Jerome Dorlack said the company’s quarterly performance was consistent with internal expectations despite external pressures. “The pressure we are seeing this year has been largely external and, in our view, temporary,” Dorlack said, citing elevated commodities and freight costs associated with the Middle East conflict as well as lower exports into the Middle East, primarily from Asia outside China. Chief Financial Officer Mark Oswald said Adient absorbed about $32 million of temporary costs in the quarter. Roughly $20 million was tied to the Middle East conflict, including higher freight, fuel and resin costs, while approximately $10 million to $12 million related to customer-driven operating inefficiencies. → 3 Drone Stocks That Should Soar After the Summer Slump Excluding those costs, adjusted EBITDA margin would have been in the mid-6% range, about 80 basis points above the reported 5.7% margin, according to Oswald. The company expects total Middle East-related costs for the full fiscal year to be about $35 million to $40 million. Adient has pass-through and escalation arrangements covering about 90% of its foam business, with recoveries generally occurring on a roughly two-quarter lag. Oswald said the company expects customer-related disruption costs to begin subsiding in the fourth quarter, while Adient has begun to see signs that commodity and freight costs are stabilizing. → The Bitcoin Comeback May Already Be Underway—2 ETFs for Exposure In the Americas, adjusted EBITDA rose $13 million year over year to $125 million, supported by favorable volume, pricing and recent program launches. These gains were partly offset by temporary inefficiencies and conflict-related costs. Dorlack said Adient is engaged in discussions with customers about onshoring opportunities and believes its North American manufacturing and engineering footprint positions it to benefit over time. EMEA adjusted EBITDA declined $7 million to $14 million as lower production levels and unfavorable mix continued to pressure the region. Management said restructuring benefits and selling, general and administrative cost discipline partially offset those pressures. The company also expects the roll-off of underperforming metals business to become a positive factor in fiscal 2027. Asia adjusted EBITDA declined $6 million to $107 million. The region remained profitable, but results were affected by lower equity income, lower demand for internal-combustion-engine vehicle programs in China, launch investments and expected mix-related margin pressure. Consolidated China sales increased about 33% year over year, driven by production ramp-ups at customers including NIO, Leapmotor and Nissan. Dorlack said Adient’s China business is increasingly aligned with local automakers, which now represent about 70% of the country’s production. The shift is expected to create further margin compression in fiscal 2027, though management said the effect has developed more gradually than initially expected. Oswald reiterated that the company anticipates roughly 100 basis points of China margin compression in fiscal 2026. Third-quarter free cash flow benefited from approximately $45 million of customer payment timing that Adient expects to reverse in the fourth quarter. The company said year-to-date cash generation also reflected working-capital discipline, accelerated customer recoveries and lower restructuring cash spending than in the prior year. At quarter-end, Adient had approximately $1.8 billion in total liquidity, including $924 million in cash and roughly $834 million of revolver availability. Its leverage ratio was 1.7 times, within its 1.5-times to 2-times target range, and the company said it has no near-term debt maturities. Moody’s upgraded Adient’s corporate credit rating to Ba3 during the quarter. Adient repurchased approximately 1.3 million shares for $30 million in the third quarter, bringing year-to-date repurchases to $55 million. About $80 million remains under the current authorization, and Oswald said the company expects its board to increase that authorization later this year. Adient raised its fiscal 2026 revenue outlook to approximately $15 billion, reflecting improved customer production schedules and favorable foreign exchange. It maintained adjusted EBITDA guidance of approximately $885 million and free-cash-flow guidance of approximately $130 million. For fiscal 2027, management said it expects above-market growth in the Americas and China, aided by recent awards, onshoring activity and new program launches. That growth in the Americas will be partly offset by the planned exit of low-margin third-party metals business. The company expects about $90 million of that metals revenue to roll off in fiscal 2027, with a larger amount expected to roll off in fiscal 2028. Management also expects automation spending to increase as it seeks to improve productivity, address labor-cost inflation and expand margins. Oswald said Adient generally targets incremental margins of roughly 16% to 17% on revenue growth. Formal fiscal 2027 guidance is scheduled to be issued in November. Adient plc (NYSE: ADNT) is a leading global supplier of automotive seating and interior components. Established in 2016 through a spin-off from Johnson Controls, the company designs, engineers and manufactures complete seat assemblies, seat structures, mechanisms, foams, textiles, trim and electronics. Adient's product portfolio spans a wide range of seating solutions, from entry-level designs to luxury and high-performance seats, and extends to interior modules such as door panels and center consoles. Serving major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) around the world, Adient works closely with automakers to develop lightweight, comfortable and safety-oriented seating systems. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Adient Q3 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.