Full Transcript: Greenbrier Companies Q3 2026 Earnings Call

Greenbrier Companies (NYSE: GBX ) held its third-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday.

Below is the complete transcript from the call.

This content is powered APIs.

For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit Access the full call at Summary Greenbrier Companies reported strong performance in its manufacturing segment driven by operating efficiency, cost discipline, and solid maintenance work.

The company aims to double its recurring revenue base by 2028, focusing on expanding its lease fleet and leveraging secondary market opportunities.

Greenbrier ended the quarter with 13,800 railcars valued at $2 billion in backlog, with strong demand for tank cars and covered hoppers.

The leasing and fleet management segment saw an expansion of the owned lease fleet to 20,600 railcars with a utilization rate of 99%.

For fiscal 2026, Greenbrier maintains its revenue guidance of $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion and narrows its EPS range to $3 to $3.15.

The company's balance sheet remains strong with approximately $887 million in liquidity, supporting ongoing investment and shareholder returns.

Recent regulatory changes, including potential tariffs on tank cars, are being monitored closely, but are not currently impacting demand.

Greenbrier's strategic initiatives include improving operational efficiency through insourcing investments and aligning production with demand.

Full Transcript Lori Our manufacturing segment, which includes maintenance, wheels and parts activity in North America, executed well in the third quarter.

Operating efficiency, cost discipline, and solid program and maintenance work helped drive the overall performance in the current macro environment.

Our lease origination capabilities provide key flexibility to manage new car production and support utilization across our manufacturing footprint.

In addition, our insourcing investment is delivering broad-based sustained efficiency gains that will further improve earnings power as demand grows.

In leasing and fleet management, we saw significant expansion of our own lease fleet with continued high utilization.

We remain focused on growing this platform and doubling our recurring revenue base by 2028 through both our own manufacturing operations and secondary market opportunities as they arise.

The enterprise-wide improvements that have been made at Greenbrier are supported by a strong financial foundation.

A healthy and well-capitalized balance sheet and ample liquidity provide flexibility to support operations, invest in the business, return capital to shareholders, and execute our strategy.

As we look ahead, our focus remains squarely on operational execution, commercial discipline, capital allocation, and ongoing enhancement of through-cycle performance.

You can expect Greenbrier's solid results across the cycle to continue driving long-term shareholder value.

Finally, I want to thank our employees for their focus, commitment, and execution.

Each and every one of their efforts demonstrates the strength of Greenbrier's culture and the durability of the platform that we've built.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Brian to discuss our operations in more detail.

Brian Comstock, Executive Vice President & President, The Americas Thanks, Lori, and good afternoon everyone.

Starting with commercial activity, we received orders for 2,200 railcars during the quarter valued at 340 million.

Demand was led by tank cars and covered hoppers with additional activity in gondolas, open top hoppers, and heavy-duty flats.

In addition to constructive rail loading trends, it's also worth noting the significant increases in trucking spot rates driven by driver shortages, elevated fuel costs, and carrier attrition.

While this alone doesn't signal a broad-based freight demand recovery, sustained higher truck rates would improve the relative competitiveness of rail and intermodal service.

Turning to backlog, we ended the quarter with 13,800 railcars valued at 2 billion.

Our commercial team remains highly engaged with customers across North America, Europe, and Brazil, and we are seeing solid activity across several car types.

As Lori noted, our lease origination capabilities were a prominent feature of the quarter.

Lease originations represented 60% of total global orders, including 71% of North American awards and 53% of European awards.

This highlights the value of our commercial model, flexible production capacity, and our ability to respond to customer needs.

The leasing and fleet management segment delivered another strong quarter.

We expanded the owned lease fleet to 20,600 railcars, and utilization remained exceptionally strong at 99%.