ARM earnings, results of 4 November 2026: strong

Arm's second quarter of fiscal 2027, the three months to September 2026: sales reached a record $1,443 million for a second quarter, up 27% on a year ago, driven mainly by licence sales. Adjusted profit grew faster than sales, but the cash the business brought in fell sharply. ¹

Against what analysts expected

Analysts' average forecast, according to Nasdaq's earnings calendar, was $0.22 a share. Arm's adjusted figure of $0.52 is about 136% above that, while its reported figure of $0.12 is below it, so the comparison depends on the measure. The adjusted figure also came in above Arm's own forecast of $0.47. ¹²

The strong points

Sales rose 27% from a year earlier to a second-quarter record of $1,443 million. ¹
Arm's own adjusted operating profit, the profit from running the business before interest and tax, rose 37% to $638 million. ¹

The weak points

Royalties, the fees Arm earns on every chip shipped with its designs, grew only 8%. ¹
Free cash flow, the cash left after running the business and investing in it, fell to $110 million from $411 million a year earlier. ¹
Arm paid its staff $376 million in shares in the quarter, more than the cash the business brought in. ¹

What the company expects

For the quarter to December, Arm expects sales of about $1.54 billion, give or take $50 million, which would be another step up from this quarter. ¹
Arm now says it could earn up to $2 billion over this year and next from selling its own AGI CPU chip, up from the $1 billion it talked of three months ago. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A strong report. Sales grew 27% and Arm's adjusted profit per share came in well above what analysts expected, and the company expects further growth next quarter. The weak cash flow and slow royalty growth hold it back from more.

The results as published

Notes

ARM's results release, 4 November 2026: sec.gov. ↩
Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 4 November 2026. ↩

ARM earnings: results of 4 November 2026