Phillips 66 earnings: third quarter 2026

Phillips 66 had a very profitable third quarter of 2026, and nearly all of it came from refining crude oil into fuels. Earnings per share were $14.08, up from $9.55 in the second quarter, with no one-off items changing the figure. Refining's pre-tax income nearly doubled from the quarter before, because the company earned much more on each barrel and ran its plants almost flat out. Sales were about 1% lower than in the second quarter, so the gain came from better margins, not from selling more. The other four businesses all earned less than the quarter before. The profit turned into cash: about $6.6 billion was left after investing in the business, and the company used much of it to buy back its own shares. ¹

Against what analysts expected

Earnings per share of $14.08 came in well above the $11.97 that analysts expected on average, according to Nasdaq's earnings calendar; reported and adjusted figures are the same, so the comparison does not depend on any one-off. ¹²

The strong points

• Refining's pre-tax income nearly doubled from the second quarter to $6,031 million, as the company earned far more on each barrel it processed and ran its plants almost at full capacity. ¹
• Earnings per share rose to $14.08 from $9.55 the quarter before, and the company's adjusted figure is the same, so no one-off items inflated it. ¹
• After paying for its investments, the company was left with roughly $6.6 billion of cash from running the business in the quarter. ¹

The weak points

• Every business other than refining earned less than in the second quarter, with Renewable Fuels falling to $191 million from $544 million. ¹
• Sales were about 1% below the second quarter, so the profit gain came from wider refining margins rather than from selling more. ¹

What the company expects

• The company expects its Coastal Bend expansion project to start adding output in the fourth quarter and to reach 350 thousand barrels a day in early 2027. ¹
• The company aims to hand back more than 50% of its operating cash to shareholders and announced its second dividend increase of 2026. ¹

Our verdict on the quarter

A strong report. An exceptionally profitable quarter that turned into plenty of cash, held back only by the fact that refining carried it alone while every other business earned less, and with no sales or profit forecast given to judge the outlook.

The results as published

• The results release itself
• The filing it came with (SEC)

Notes

1. Phillips 66's results release, 28 October 2026: sec.gov. ↩
2. Nasdaq's earnings calendar, 29 October 2026. ↩