Bright Horizons Family Solutions (BFAM) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Bright Horizons published the results on October 29, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Bright Horizons reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and Diluted adjusted EPS, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• Q3 2026 GAAP results include a $290.0 million non-cash goodwill impairment in the full service center-based child care segment, mainly from lower long-term cash flow projections for the Australia operations, plus $23.4 million of general liability reserves for safeguarding matters.
• Bright Horizons lowered its 2026 outlook in this release. In July it had guided revenue of $3.085 billion to $3.115 billion and diluted adjusted EPS of $5.05 to $5.15.

Source: Bright Horizons Q3 2026 results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), October 29, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Bright Horizons splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Bright Horizons's Full service center-based child care revenue was $522 million in Q3 2026, up 1% from $516 million in Q3 2025, 62% of total revenue.
• Bright Horizons's Back-up care revenue was $286 million in Q3 2026, up 13% from $253 million in Q3 2025, 34% of total revenue.
• Bright Horizons's Educational advisory services revenue was $33.1 million in Q3 2026, down 2% from $33.9 million in Q3 2025, 4% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release, Bright Horizons said:

“Based on current trends and expectations, we currently expect fiscal year 2026 revenue to be approximately $3.07 billion and diluted adjusted earnings per common share to be in the range of $4.98 to $5.03.”

Source: Bright Horizons Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 29, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the BFAM forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP revenue and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's earnings release. The Q3 2026 loss is mostly the goodwill impairment.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Bright Horizons's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 29, 2026

Bright Horizons reports three segments. In Q3 2026 full service center-based child care brought in $522.0 million of the $841.5 million total, back-up care $286.4 million and educational advisory services $33.1 million. Total revenue rose $38.7 million, or 5%, which the company put down mainly to growth in back-up care, partly offset by revenue lost at full service centers closed over the past 12 months. (Bright Horizons Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Oct 29, 2026; Bright Horizons Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Bright Horizons' full service segment is mostly tuition, $473.8 million in the quarter, with $48.2 million of management fees and operating subsidies from employer sponsors. Tuition rose 1% because average tuition rates went up about 4%, offset by closed centers, which cut revenue by about 3%, and lower enrollment in Australia, which cut it by about 1%. The 10-Q says the company expects center closures to exceed openings over the next 12 months. (Bright Horizons Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Back-up care revenue at Bright Horizons rose 13% to $286.4 million, which the company attributed to more use of center-based care, in-home care and school-age programs by employees of new and existing clients. The segment earned $101.2 million of income from operations, 35% of its revenue. Back-up care is a benefit employers buy to cover employees when their usual care arrangements fall through, and it also includes senior care and pet care. (Bright Horizons Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026; Bright Horizons Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Oct 29, 2026; Bright Horizons Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026)

At September 30, 2026 Bright Horizons operated 979 early education and child care centers with capacity for about 112,500 children, in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia and India, and served more than 1,450 employers. Its employer-sponsored model rests on long-term contracts with a single employer or a consortium to run care at or near the worksite. (Bright Horizons Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Oct 29, 2026; Bright Horizons Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026)

Bright Horizons posted a GAAP diluted loss of $4.76 per share in Q3 2026, against earnings of $1.37 a year earlier, on a net loss of $230.7 million. The loss came from a $290.0 million goodwill impairment in the full service segment, tied to revised long-term cash flow projections for its Australia operations. Because the impairment is not tax-deductible, the company called the quarter's effective tax rate not meaningful. (Bright Horizons Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Oct 29, 2026; Bright Horizons Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Diluted adjusted EPS was $1.80, against $1.57. Adjusted net income of $87.5 million excludes the goodwill impairment, $27.4 million of other costs ($4.0 million of long-lived asset impairments and $23.4 million of general liability reserves for safeguarding matters), amortization and $7.8 million of stock-based compensation, and is taxed at about 28%. Adjusted net income fell from $90.1 million, but adjusted EPS rose because the share count shrank. (Bright Horizons Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Oct 29, 2026)

Bright Horizons repurchased about 7.7 million shares for $557.7 million in the first nine months of 2026, against 0.9 million shares for $106.0 million a year earlier. Diluted weighted average shares for adjusted EPS were 48,709,897 in Q3 2026, against 57,377,773. Interest expense rose to $17.2 million from $12.2 million. (Bright Horizons Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Oct 29, 2026; Bright Horizons Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 30, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Bright Horizons gives a full-year outlook in its release, and on October 29, 2026 it issued revised guidance for 2026: revenue of about $3.07 billion and diluted adjusted EPS of $4.98 to $5.03, both below the ranges in its July release. The company gives no GAAP EPS outlook, saying it cannot predict items such as future impairments and lease termination costs. (Bright Horizons Q3 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Oct 29, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Bright Horizons, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Bright Horizons's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning BFAM is on is BFAM a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the BFAM forecast, and what the company does is on the Bright Horizons Family Solutions (BFAM) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Bright Horizons published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.