Medpace Q3 2026 Earnings: Bookings Rise and the Profit Forecast Goes Up as Revenue Growth Slows

Medpace reported third-quarter 2026 results after the close on Wednesday, October 21, with earnings per share (EPS) of $4.84 against the $4.44 analysts expected and revenue of $716.0 million, in line with forecasts. The company, which runs clinical trials for drug and biotech developers, raised its full-year EPS forecast to $17.97 to $18.32 from $17.25 to $17.95, and it replaced its share repurchase program with a new $1.0 billion authorization.

MEDP had already risen 6.43% in the regular session to $662.48, in a rally across life-science and drug-development stocks. After the close it swung widely in thin trading. The one-minute bar before the results reached the MoveSurge news feed at 16:17:43 ET traded between $600.12 and $635.00 and closed at $606.90. Ten minutes later the stock was at $655.00, 7.93% above that bar but still below the regular-session close. Investing.com reported an after-hours drop of about 1.9% and tied it to the full-year revenue forecast.

Why EPS beat while revenue only matched

Profit grew much faster than sales. EBITDA, which is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, rose 16.0% on revenue growth of 8.5%, and the EBITDA margin widened to 24.0% from 22.5%. Net income rose to $137.5 million from $111.1 million. Medpace ended September with $705.3 million in cash, up from $502.7 million three months earlier, because it generated $216.6 million from operations in the quarter and bought back no stock.

Revenue growth has slowed for three quarters

Revenue growth fell from 32.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 26.5% in the first quarter of 2026, 17.2% in the second and 8.5% in the third. The new full-year revenue forecast of $2.835 billion to $2.855 billion narrows the July range of $2.805 billion to $2.885 billion around the same midpoint of $2.845 billion, slightly below the roughly $2.852 billion analysts expected. After nine months of revenue, the forecast leaves $705.1 million to $725.1 million for the fourth quarter, against $708.5 million a year earlier.

New contracts are moving the other way

Net new business awards, the value of new contracts signed after cancellations, rose 10.6% to $873.4 million. That is about 1.22 times quarterly revenue, a ratio known as book-to-bill, up from 1.13 in the second quarter and 0.88 in the first. Awards feed the backlog that becomes revenue in later quarters, and backlog rose to $3.17 billion. The 0.88 ratio in the first quarter came with the highest cancellations in more than a year, and the stock fell 23.7% in premarket trading the next morning. In July, when the ratio recovered to 1.13, the stock rose 17.8% after hours.

The $1 billion repurchase plan replaces the old one

The new authorization runs through December 31, 2028. It replaces a program that still had $527.0 million unused at the end of September, so the new room for repurchases is about $473 million. Medpace spent $294.7 million on its own stock in the second quarter and nothing in the third.