Vertiv Earnings: Customers Paid $4.1 Billion Ahead of Delivery
Customers of Vertiv, maker of the power and cooling gear inside AI data centers, are ordering faster than it ships, and the money they pay up front keeps rising. As of September 30 they had paid it $4.1 billion in advance, 3.6 times a year earlier by our calculation and 3.3 times June 2025, before a September 2025 dip.
The short answer. Vertiv’s customers had prepaid $4.1 billion by September 30. Its third-quarter sales rose 61% and came in about $563 million above the middle of its July forecast, by the company’s count. Orders, leaving out acquisitions and currency, more than doubled. For anyone following the AI boom, that is spending already paid, ahead of delivery, for the power and cooling of data centers and other sites. We also show that after June 2026 the balance kept growing, though more slowly than sales, and what Vertiv says could set the pace: power, permits and skilled workers. On power, it has just bought UtilityInnovation Group, which it expects to help customers get new sites their electricity sooner.
Vertiv in the third quarter of 2026
On this page
- What Vertiv earnings show about deferred revenue, the money paid in advance
- Are Vertiv orders growing faster than sales
- Vertiv Q3 2026 results against its own forecast
- What could slow data center construction, according to Vertiv
- How Vertiv compares with SK hynix and Seagate on future demand
- Does Vertiv pay a dividend
- Frequently asked questions
What Vertiv earnings show about deferred revenue, the money paid in advance
As of September 30, customers had paid Vertiv $4.1 billion for equipment and services it still had to deliver. A year earlier the same balance was $1.1 billion.
The money appears in Vertiv’s balance sheet, its list of what it owns and owes, as current deferred revenue. Its 2025 annual report says payments received in advance for services or product delivery are recorded there, and turn into sales once the work is done. The figure counts work due within a year; longer service contracts sit in a separate, much smaller line.
The balance has grown in every quarter of 2026, from $1.81 billion at the end of December to $4.12 billion in September, according to the third-quarter results release.
Show the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Q4 2023 | $0.64B |
| Q1 2024 | $0.74B |
| Q2 2024 | $0.89B |
| Q3 2024 | $1.02B |
| Q4 2024 | $1.06B |
| Q1 2025 | $1.10B |
| Q2 2025 | $1.26B |
| Q3 2025 | $1.13B |
| Q4 2025 | $1.81B |
| Q1 2026 | $2.46B |
| Q2 2026 | $3.63B |
| Q3 2026 | $4.12B |
For a sense of scale, the $4.1 billion is close to everything Vertiv sold in the whole third quarter. Part of it pays for service work, though, because Vertiv does not split the balance between deposits on equipment and prepaid service contracts.
In the latest three months the balance kept growing, though more slowly than sales. By our calculation it rose 13% from June, while quarterly sales jumped 32%. The figures do not show how much of those sales came from work customers had paid for in advance.
The rise in deferred revenue added $2.31 billion to the cash the business brought in during the first nine months of 2026. That comes from the release’s table of money coming in and going out. In our reading, that money helps pay for Vertiv’s own build-up, the inventories of parts and finished equipment, which by our calculation more than doubled over the same months.
Show the data
| Date | Current deferred revenue | Inventories |
|---|---|---|
| September 30, 2025 | $1,131.9M | $1,437.1M |
| December 31, 2025 | $1,814.7M | $1,456.5M |
| March 31, 2026 | $2,461.8M | $1,834.6M |
| June 30, 2026 | $3,633.7M | $2,522.7M |
| September 30, 2026 | $4,120.5M | $3,288.4M |
Source: Vertiv results releases for each quarter (balance sheets); change in deferred revenue of $2,312.9M in the nine months to September 30, 2026, from the third-quarter 2026 cash flow statement.
Are Vertiv orders growing faster than sales
Yes, by a lot. Leaving out acquisitions and currency, orders more than doubled while sales grew 55%, or 61% in total.
Vertiv counts its orders excluding acquisitions and currency swings. On that basis they grew more than 100% in the third quarter. A year earlier, orders were about 1.4 times sales, a ratio called book-to-bill (Q3 2025 release).
Vertiv gave no such ratio this time. If orders exactly doubled, our rough estimate puts them at about 1.8 times the quarter’s sales.
The fullest measure of work waiting is the backlog, the value of signed orders not yet delivered. At the end of 2025 it stood at $15.0 billion, more than double a year earlier, according to the annual report. By our calculation, that is about a year and a half of 2025’s sales.
Show the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Q4 2023 | $5.5B |
| Q1 2024 | $6.3B |
| Q4 2024 | $7.2B |
| Q1 2025 | $7.9B |
| Q2 2025 | $8.5B |
| Q3 2025 | $9.5B |
| Q4 2025 | $15.0B |
The same report said customers were placing orders “in advance of our ability to fulfill them,” and that most of the backlog was expected to ship within 12 to 18 months. It also warned that customers can cancel or reschedule orders.
Vertiv’s 2026 results releases give no updated backlog figure, and the results presentation mentions it only in passing. So how big the backlog is today, and when it ships, is not something the published figures show.
Vertiv Q3 2026 results against its own forecast
Vertiv sold far more than it expected to three months ago. Its results presentation puts third-quarter sales about $563 million above the middle of its July forecast, and it raised its outlook for 2026 for the third time this year.
Net sales for the quarter to September 30 were $4.31 billion, up 61% from a year earlier and well above the range Vertiv gave in July (second-quarter release).
Show the data
| Item | Low | High | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 net sales | $3.65B | $3.85B | $4.31B |
Profit grew faster than sales. Operating profit rose 90%. This measures what the business earns before interest and taxes. Profit for each share almost doubled to $1.95, a figure that also counts shares Vertiv could still issue.
Vertiv says it raised its forecast for 2026 sales by $650 million, measured at the middle of its range. By our arithmetic, most of that raise is the third quarter’s own beat, so the outlook for the last three months moved up much less.
By our calculation, the fourth-quarter forecast is only about 2% above the third quarter’s sales, though still about 53% above the same quarter of 2025. The release does not say why growth from one quarter to the next slows.
Sales grew in every region, fastest in the Americas at 75%.
Show the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Americas | 74.5% |
| Asia Pacific | 49.9% |
| Europe, Middle East and Africa | 22.8% |
Show the data
| Measure | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales | $4,312.8M | $2,675.8M | +61% |
| Organic sales growth | 55% | ||
| Operating profit | $983.8M | $516.7M | +90% |
| Adjusted operating profit | $1,086.9M | $595.6M | +83% |
| Adjusted operating margin | 25.2% | 22.3% | +2.9 points |
| Diluted EPS | $1.95 | $1.02 | +91% |
| Adjusted diluted EPS | $2.21 | $1.24 | +78% |
| Operating cash flow | $794.0M | $482.7M | +64% |
| Adjusted free cash flow | $652.2M | $436.0M | +50% |
| 2026 forecast | Range |
|---|---|
| Q4 2026 net sales | $4,313M to $4,513M |
| Q4 2026 adjusted diluted EPS | $2.22 to $2.28 |
| Full year 2026 net sales | $14,450M to $14,850M |
| Full year 2026 organic sales growth | 37% to 39% |
| Full year 2026 adjusted diluted EPS | $7.10 to $7.20 |
| Full year 2026 adjusted free cash flow | $2,600M to $2,800M |
Source: Vertiv third quarter 2026 results release and results presentation, October 28, 2026. Fourth-quarter forecast midpoint $4,413M. EPS is earnings per share; diluted EPS also counts shares that could still be issued. Adjusted figures are the company’s own measures. Adjusted operating profit and adjusted EPS leave out the gradual write-off of intangible assets (things of value with no physical form, such as patents). They also leave out reorganization costs, extra payments promised to sellers of businesses it bought, and deal costs. Adjusted EPS also leaves out the costs of repaying a loan in March 2026. Adjusted free cash flow is cash from operations minus spending on equipment and software.
What could slow data center construction, according to Vertiv
Vertiv expects years of very large data center projects. What it says it is watching is the supply of power, permits, pauses on approving new projects and the number of skilled workers.
Its results presentation says data center demand “is accelerating with global, multi-year, GW-scale buildouts,” GW being gigawatts, the unit for the electricity a big site draws. It adds that Vertiv is “monitoring pacing factors such as power, permitting, moratoriums and skilled labor,” moratoriums being pauses on approving new projects.
Power is also where Vertiv is spending. On October 26 it completed the roughly $1.45 billion purchase of UtilityInnovation Group (completion release). Its September announcement said the deal was expected to help customers “accelerate time to power,” meaning get a new site its electricity sooner (Vertiv release).
The business adds controls for microgrids, small power networks that can run a site on its own generators. It also brings what the industry calls behind-the-meter power, meaning electricity made on the site itself.
How Vertiv compares with SK hynix and Seagate on future demand
Two other suppliers to the same data centers said this week that much of their future output is already committed into 2028. Each describes a different kind of commitment, and none says how many data centers will open, or when.
SK hynix makes the memory chips that sit next to AI processors. On October 27 it said its long-term customer agreements cover more than 50% of its total production capacity for 2027 and 2028 (SK hynix release; our story: SK hynix earnings).
Seagate makes hard drives. Its results materials the same day say the “vast majority” of its supply of nearline drives, the high-capacity disks data centers use, is allocated to customers through calendar 2028. Some cloud agreements run to 2030 (Seagate supplemental information; our story: Seagate earnings).
- Vertiv, power and cooling $4.1B Customers had paid this in advance for equipment and services not yet delivered, as of September 30, 2026.
- SK hynix, memory chips Over 50% Share of its 2027 and 2028 production capacity covered by long-term customer agreements (results release, October 27).
- Seagate, hard drives Through 2028 Most of its data center nearline drive supply allocated through calendar 2028; some cloud deals to 2030 (October 27).
The three disclosures measure different things. SK hynix and Seagate describe factory output set aside under agreements, and Vertiv reports money customers have already paid. None of the three gives enough on contract terms to say which commitment is harder to cancel.
Does Vertiv pay a dividend
Vertiv pays shareholders a small dividend of $0.0625 a share in cash every quarter. It bought back none of its own shares this year through September, and it had more cash than debt on September 30, before paying for UtilityInnovation.
The dividend has been $0.0625 a quarter since November 2025, the annual report says. Vertiv has a plan to buy back up to $3.0 billion of its own shares, running to the end of 2027. It made no such purchases in the first half of 2026, its June quarterly filing says, and the cash flow statement for July to September shows none either.
The number of shares edged up to 385.0 million on September 30, from 382.6 million in December, according to the results release.
The release puts its liquidity, the cash plus credit it can draw on, at $6.2 billion.
On September 30, long-term debt was $2.93 billion against $3.51 billion of cash. For an owner, that means Vertiv went into the fourth quarter with more cash than debt.
Those figures come before the UtilityInnovation purchase described above. Vertiv then paid about $1.45 billion in cash up front for it. Up to $1.15 billion more in cash follows if the business meets earnings targets over the next two years (completion release).
What to watch
- A backlog figure, or a split of the advance money: Vertiv’s quarterly report to the SEC, the US market regulator, for July to September. It filed the last two on results day.
- Whether money paid in advance keeps rising, and where cash and debt stood after the UtilityInnovation payment: Vertiv’s fourth-quarter results release and balance sheet, date not yet announced.
Our numbers
- 3.6 times: current deferred revenue of $4,120.5 million on September 30, 2026 divided by $1,131.9 million a year earlier.
- 3.3 times: the same $4,120.5 million divided by $1,257.3 million on June 30, 2025, before the balance dipped.
- 13% against 32%: current deferred revenue of $4,120.5 million against $3,633.7 million on June 30, 2026, and third-quarter sales of $4,312.8 million against $3,274 million in the second quarter.
- More than doubled: inventories of $3,288.4 million on September 30, 2026 against $1,456.5 million on December 31, 2025.
- Most of the raise: the third-quarter beat of about $563 million that the company reports, set against its $650 million rise in the middle of the full-year sales forecast.
- About 1.8 times sales, if orders exactly doubled: Vertiv’s Q3 2025 book-to-bill of about 1.4, doubled, then divided by 1.55 because sales grew 55% leaving out acquisitions and currency.
- About a year and a half: the $15.0 billion backlog at the end of 2025 divided by 2025 sales of $10.23 billion.
- About 2% and 53%: the $4,413 million midpoint of the fourth-quarter forecast against third-quarter sales of $4,312.8 million and fourth-quarter 2025 sales of $2,880 million.
Frequently asked questions
What does Vertiv make?
Power, cooling and IT infrastructure equipment, with software and services, for data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial sites, according to the company. It is headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, and does business in more than 130 countries.
Is Vertiv in the S&P 500?
Yes. The S&P 500 is the stock index of about 500 of the largest US companies. Executive Chairman Dave Cote referred to “our addition to the S&P 500 in March” in the first-quarter 2026 release.
When is the Vertiv earnings call?
Vertiv scheduled its third-quarter call for 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, with a webcast and a 30-day replay on its investor relations site.
Did Vertiv raise its guidance?
Yes. Guidance is the company’s own forecast, and Vertiv raised it on every main measure. It now expects 2026 profit per share of $7.10 to $7.20, up from $6.65 to $6.75 in July. That is on its own adjusted measure, which leaves out some costs, such as those of buying businesses and of reorganizing.
Who are Vertiv’s customers?
Its annual report groups them into data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial users. The data centers include cloud companies, colocation sites that rent space to many tenants, newer AI cloud providers and company-owned sites. The results release does not name individual customers.
Sources
- Vertiv third quarter 2026 results release (StockTitan)
- Vertiv stock overview (StockTitan)
- Vertiv financials (StockTitan)
- Vertiv second quarter 2026 results release (StockTitan)
- Vertiv first quarter 2026 results release (StockTitan)
- Vertiv fourth quarter 2025 results release (StockTitan)
- Vertiv third quarter 2025 results release (StockTitan)
- Vertiv second quarter 2025 results release (StockTitan)
- Vertiv agreement to acquire UtilityInnovation Group (StockTitan)
- Vertiv completes acquisition of UtilityInnovation Group (StockTitan)
- SK hynix third quarter 2026 results release (StockTitan)
- SK hynix earnings (StockTitan)
- Seagate earnings (StockTitan)
- Vertiv third quarter 2026 results presentation
- Vertiv 2025 Form 10-K
- Vertiv Form 10-Q, quarter ended June 30, 2026
- Seagate supplemental financial information, fiscal Q1 2027
The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendation, or an endorsement of any particular investment strategy. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.