Saia (SAIA) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Saia 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. Saia reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and adjusted, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• Saia's Q3 2025 results included a $16.4 million gain on the sale of a terminal and a $1.9 million real estate impairment, which together added $0.41 to diluted EPS. Saia's adjusted EPS for that quarter, $2.81, excludes them. No items were excluded in Q3 2026, so GAAP and adjusted EPS are both $3.41.
• Saia has a single reportable segment, so no segment table is shown.

Source: Saia Q3 2026 results, 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.

From the earnings release

Saia's release gives no revenue or earnings outlook. Its only forward figure is full-year capital spending.

In its Q3 2026 release, Saia said:

“For full-year 2026, the Company expects that net capital expenditures will be approximately $350 million, subject to ongoing evaluation of market conditions.”

Source: Saia 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 SAIA forecast page.

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

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

We do not hold a confirmed date for Saia'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

Saia's operating revenue was a company record of $982.5 million in Q3 2026, up 17.0% from $839.6 million a year earlier. Saia has a single reportable segment, built around its less-than-truckload carrier Saia LTL Freight, which mostly moves shipments of 100 to 10,000 pounds; it also sells brokered truckload, expedited and other logistics services. (Saia Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Saia Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026; Saia Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 24, 2026)

Saia attributes the increase primarily to higher fuel surcharge revenue as a result of higher diesel fuel prices, an 8.1 percent increase in LTL pounds per shipment, and pricing actions that raised LTL revenue per shipment, excluding fuel surcharges, by 5.8 percent. Fuel surcharge revenue was 22.5 percent of operating revenue in the quarter, against 15.2 percent in Q3 2025. (Saia Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

Volume grew by weight more than by count. Over 64 workdays in each quarter, Saia moved 2,351 thousand LTL shipments, up 0.8%, and 1,722 thousand tons, up 8.9%, as average weight per shipment rose to 1,465 pounds from 1,355. Because shipments were heavier, LTL revenue per hundredweight excluding fuel surcharge fell 2.2% to $21.25 while revenue per shipment on the same basis rose to $311.34 from $294.35. Average length of haul was 885 miles, against 894. (Saia Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Saia operated 213 owned and leased terminals at December 31, 2025, with about 7,700 tractors and 26,500 trailers, and its Q3 2026 release puts the terminal count at 219. Its customer base is wide: no single customer represented more than 5 percent of accounts receivable at year-end 2025. (Saia Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 24, 2026; Saia Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Saia's diluted EPS was $3.41 in Q3 2026, against $3.22 a year earlier. The year-ago figure included a $16.4 million gain on the sale of a terminal and a $1.9 million real estate impairment, which added $0.41 a share; Saia's adjusted diluted EPS for Q3 2025 was $2.81. Nothing was excluded in Q3 2026, so its adjusted EPS equals GAAP. (Saia Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Operating income rose to $122.3 million from $118.6 million, but the operating ratio (operating expenses divided by revenue) rose to 87.6% from 85.9%, equal to the year-ago adjusted ratio of 87.6%. Salaries, wages and employees' benefits rose $46.7 million, which Saia linked to performance pay and company-wide wage increases of approximately 3% in July 2026 and October 2025. Purchased transportation rose $31.1 million as Saia used more outside capacity to manage headcount. (Saia Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Saia Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

Below operating income, interest expense fell to $2.0 million from $4.5 million on lower borrowings, and the effective tax rate was 24.7 percent against 24.8 percent. Diluted weighted average shares were 26,815 thousand, against 26,790 thousand a year earlier. On October 29, 2026, Saia's board authorized repurchases of up to $250 million of its common stock, with no expiration date. (Saia Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Saia Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 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.

Saia does not publish a revenue or earnings outlook in its release. The one forward figure is full-year 2026 net capital expenditures of approximately $350 million, against $235.9 million spent in the first nine months of 2026 and $446.1 million in the first nine months of 2025. (Saia Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Saia's 10-Q says it anticipates the approximately 3% wage increase that took effect July 1, 2026 will be partially offset by productivity and efficiency gains. (Saia Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

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

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