UPS reports its first clean quarter since the Amazon glide-down ended

Haverhill Financial Research · News · Earnings · October 26, 2026

UPS reports third-quarter results on Tuesday, October 27, with a call at 8:30am Eastern. This is the first full quarter after the company finished deliberately shrinking its Amazon business, which makes it the cleanest look at the underlying parcel network investors have had in two years.

Second-quarter revenue was $22.83 billion, up about 7.6%. Adjusted operating profit was $2.10 billion at a 9.2% margin, up roughly 12%, and adjusted earnings were $1.76 a share. Reported figures were much lower — $0.71 a share — because of $891 million of after-tax charges, mostly severance tied to the company's driver buyout programme.

The most informative numbers are in the US domestic segment, and they point in opposite directions on purpose.

For most of its history UPS was judged on how many parcels it moved. For the last two years it has been deliberately moving fewer of them. Average daily volume in the United States fell 3.3% in the second quarter while revenue per piece rose 9.3%, and segment revenue still grew 6.0%. That is the strategy working: shed the parcels that barely pay for the truck, keep the ones that do.

The company said in its second-quarter release that it has completed the Amazon glide-down and the related network reconfiguration. That removes the standing excuse. From here, volume declines have to be explained by choice or by the economy, not by a planned exit.

The cost programme first: UPS realised about $1.2 billion of benefits in the first half against roughly $3 billion expected for the full year, so the second half has to carry more. Then the dividend. UPS expects to pay about $5.4 billion in dividends this year, and free cash flow in the first six months was $1.57 billion. The fourth quarter is the strongest for a parcel carrier, so the full year is not the same arithmetic as the half — but the gap is why the dividend keeps coming up.

Finally, whether the full-year guidance of roughly $91.2 billion of revenue and $7.22 of adjusted earnings survives. The holiday peak is forecast on this call, and that forecast tends to move the stock more than the quarter itself.

Figures come from UPS's own second-quarter 2026 results release, filed with the SEC as a Form 8-K exhibit.

Disclosures. Haverhill Financial Research is a publisher of general financial commentary. This article is not personalized investment advice and does not consider any reader's financial situation; readers should do their own research. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Company figures and guidance can change. The author of this post does not hold a position in UPS. Data as of October 26, 2026.