Reliance (RS) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Reliance published the results on October 21, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Reliance reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and non-GAAP, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• Reliance reports one segment, metals service centers. The rows above are its five major commodities; toll processing, logistics and other products make up the rest of net sales.
• Reliance values most of its inventory on the LIFO method. LIFO expense was $187.5 million in Q3 2026, against $25.0 million a year earlier, and Reliance also reports FIFO-based non-GAAP figures.
• Reliance's gross profit excludes depreciation and amortization, so Reliance itself labels gross profit and gross profit margin as non-GAAP measures.

Source: Reliance Q3 2026 results, October 21, 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 Reliance 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.

• Reliance's Carbon steel revenue was $3.1 billion in Q3 2026, up 53% from $2.0 billion in Q3 2025, 60% of total revenue.
• Reliance's Aluminum revenue was $862 million in Q3 2026, up 39% from $622 million in Q3 2025, 17% of total revenue.
• Reliance's Stainless steel revenue was $635 million in Q3 2026, up 30% from $490 million in Q3 2025, 12% of total revenue.
• Reliance's Alloy revenue was $187 million in Q3 2026, up 17% from $160 million in Q3 2025, 4% of total revenue.
• Reliance's Copper & brass revenue was $129 million in Q3 2026, up 26% from $103 million in Q3 2025, 2% 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, Reliance said:

“Excluding the impact of the border wall project, the Company estimates tons sold in the fourth quarter of 2026 will be up 4.0% to 6.0% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025, and, consistent with seasonal trends, down 5.5% to 7.5% compared to the third quarter of 2026.”

“Reliance expects its average selling price per ton sold for the fourth quarter of 2026 will be up 1.0% to 3.0% compared to the third quarter of 2026.”

“Based on these assumptions, and inclusive of LIFO expense of $112.5 million, or $1.64 per diluted share, the Company anticipates non‑GAAP earnings per diluted share in the range of $7.40 to $7.60 for the fourth quarter of 2026, up over 200% year‑over‑year.”

“This outlook includes approximately $0.70 of earnings per share from shipments associated with the U.S. border wall project at pretax income margin levels above the Company average.”

Source: Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 21, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the RS forecast page.

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

Net sales and GAAP diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Reliance'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 21, 2026

Reliance's net sales were $5,213.2 million in Q3 2026, up 42.8% from $3,651.2 million a year earlier, and a quarterly record. Reliance reports a single segment, metals service centers. By commodity, carbon steel sales were $3,119.3 million, aluminum $861.7 million, stainless steel $634.9 million, alloy $186.8 million and copper & brass $129.1 million. Carbon steel rose to 58% of sales from 54% a year earlier. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; Reliance Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026)

Tons sold were 1,867.2 thousand, up 15.6% from 1,615.5 thousand, and the average selling price per ton sold was $2,815, up 24.0% from $2,271. Reliance said the growth in tons included a 9.4% contribution from the U.S. border wall project and beat the industry-wide increase of 10.1% reported by the Metals Service Center Institute. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

The border wall contract came from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the first quarter of 2026: a multi-year award to supply steel and steel logistics support services for the wall along the Southwest U.S. border, with deliveries starting in the second quarter. Reliance put its Q3 earnings contribution at $0.74 per share. Shipments of carbon steel plate and tubing under the project cut FIFO gross profit margin by 60 basis points, though Reliance said the project added to pretax income margin. (Reliance Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 27, 2026; Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Reliance serves more than 125,000 customers, its largest customer was 0.6% of 2025 net sales, and only 25 customers bought more than $30 million from it in 2025. Its average order in 2025 was $3,120, and about 49% of orders included value-added processing. Sales from foreign operations were about 6% of 2025 net sales, or $864.6 million. (Reliance Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026; Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Non-residential construction, including infrastructure, is Reliance's largest end market by tons. Reliance said demand there improved from Q3 2025, with data centers, energy infrastructure and public infrastructure projects offsetting softness in other construction sectors, and that demand for products it sells into the semiconductor market meaningfully improved on data center activity. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Reliance's GAAP diluted EPS was $7.84 in Q3 2026, against $3.59 a year earlier, and non-GAAP diluted EPS was $8.02, against $3.64. The non-GAAP figure adds back impairment and restructuring charges ($0.05 a share) and settlement charges ($0.19 a share), which Reliance says include the resolution of certain customs duty matters, less a $0.06 tax effect. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Reliance's LIFO expense was $187.5 million, or $2.74 per diluted share, against the $1.10 management had expected, which Reliance attributed mainly to higher-than-anticipated carbon steel product costs. Reliance's non-GAAP diluted EPS on a FIFO basis was $10.76. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Diluted weighted average shares were 51,388 thousand, against 52,817 thousand a year earlier. Reliance repurchased $45 million of stock in the quarter at an average price of about $395 a share, and on October 20, 2026 its board raised the repurchase authorization to $2.5 billion. The effective income tax rate was 24.2%, against 23.3% a year earlier. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; Reliance Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 27, 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.

Reliance gives a quarterly outlook in its release. For Q4 2026 it expects non-GAAP EPS of $7.40 to $7.60, including LIFO expense of $112.5 million ($1.64 per diluted share) and about $0.70 a share from the border wall project. It expects tons sold up 13.5% to 15.5% from Q4 2025 including the border wall, and average selling price per ton up 1.0% to 3.0% from Q3 2026. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

For Q3 2026 Reliance had guided non-GAAP EPS of $6.40 to $6.60, and it reported $8.02. (Reliance Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Reliance, 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 Reliance'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 RS is on is RS a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the RS forecast, and what the company does is on the Reliance (RS) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Reliance 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.