Wendy's (WEN) Earnings: Q3 Fiscal 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 27, 2026 and Wendy's published the results on November 5, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 fiscal 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Wendy's 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.

• Wendy's fiscal Q3 2026 ended September 27, 2026; the year-ago quarter ended September 28, 2025.
• Total revenues include advertising funds revenue ($111.4 million this quarter), which Wendy's passes through to marketing. Its non-GAAP adjusted revenues of $435.6 million exclude it.
• Wendy's release gives no financial outlook for 2026.

Source: Wendy's Q3 2026 results, November 5, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 27, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

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

• Wendy's's Wendy's U.S. revenue was $450 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, flat on $451 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 82% of total revenue.
• Wendy's's Wendy's International revenue was $38.0 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, down 5% from $39.9 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 7% of total revenue.
• Wendy's's Global Real Estate & Development revenue was $58.8 million in Q3 fiscal 2026, up 1% from $58.2 million in Q3 fiscal 2025, 11% 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.

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

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

We do not hold a confirmed date for Wendy's'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 fiscal 2026 (this page), reported Nov 5, 2026

Wendy's reported revenues of $547.0 million in Q3 2026, down 0.5% from $549.5 million. Most of it comes from franchisees: franchise royalty revenue was $119.4 million, franchise fees $22.9 million and franchise rental income $58.5 million. Sales at Company-operated restaurants were $234.9 million and advertising funds revenue $111.4 million. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026)

Global systemwide sales, which include franchise restaurants, were about $3.3 billion, down 5.9%: U.S. systemwide sales fell 7.6% to $2,777.0 million while international grew 3.5% to $549.4 million. U.S. same-restaurant sales fell 5.7% and international same-restaurant sales fell 2.2%. Wendy's attributed the drop to lower U.S. same-restaurant sales and fewer U.S. restaurants. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026)

Revenue held up better than systemwide sales because lower franchise royalty revenue was partly offset by higher advertising funds revenue, as local advertising funds were reallocated to U.S. national advertising, and by higher Company-operated sales from franchise restaurants Wendy's acquired in Q3 2025. By segment, Wendy's U.S. brought in $450.2 million, Wendy's International $38.0 million and Global Real Estate & Development $58.8 million. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026; Wendy's Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Wendy's ended the quarter with 7,194 restaurants, 5,711 in the U.S. and 1,483 international, against 7,363 a year earlier. At the end of 2025 Wendy's itself operated 423 U.S. restaurants and 203 franchisees ran the other 5,546. In September 2026 Wendy's terminated the franchise agreements of Meritage Hospitality Group, which operated 314 restaurants and owed $27.4 million in overdue royalties, advertising and other fees; Meritage filed for Chapter 11 on September 17, 2026, and Wendy's has signed a letter of intent to acquire up to 163 of its restaurants. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026; Wendy's Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; Wendy's Form 10-K, fiscal 2025, Feb 23, 2026)

Wendy's reported diluted EPS of $0.08 in Q3 2026, down from $0.23, and adjusted EPS of $0.13, down from $0.24. Adjusted EPS excludes $11.9 million of strategic initiative expenses, chiefly consulting and professional fees for the Dave's Way strategy, plus $2.8 million of reorganization and realignment costs and $1.7 million of impairments, less $3.7 million of portfolio and system optimization gains and a $3.1 million income tax impact. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026)

Operating profit fell 39.3% to $55.8 million. General and administrative expense rose 26.3% to $73.1 million, and net franchise fees fell because of a higher provision for doubtful accounts: Wendy's recorded $23.3 million of provisions in the first nine months of 2026, against $2.5 million a year earlier. U.S. Company-operated restaurant margin fell 140 basis points to 11.7% on lower traffic and labor and commodity inflation. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026; Wendy's Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Net income was $15.1 million on 191,801 thousand diluted shares. Interest expense, net rose to $33.6 million, and the tax provision was $10.3 million on pre-tax income of $25.4 million. Wendy's repurchased no shares in the quarter and declared a $0.07 quarterly dividend. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 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.

Wendy's does not publish a financial outlook in its Q3 2026 earnings release. The release instead describes Dave's Way, a multi-year strategy aimed at growing customer traffic and market share and strengthening restaurant profitability. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026)

CFO Steve Cirulis said Wendy's had approximately $413 million in cash and $174 million of free cash flow year-to-date, and that its decision to make breakfast location specific could unlock up to $200 million in restaurant-level EBITDA across the system. About $35.0 million remains under a share repurchase authorization that expires in February 2027. (Wendy's Q3 2026 release (8-K Exhibit 99.1), Nov 5, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Wendy's, 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 Wendy's's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 fiscal 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 WEN is on is WEN a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the WEN forecast, and what the company does is on the Wendy's (WEN) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Wendy's 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.