News · Custom Truck One Source, Inc. (CTOS) · Industrials

Custom Truck One Source jumps 16.6% after quarterly results lift outlook

Session of October 27, 2026 · Published October 28, 2026 · 3 min read

What happened

Custom Truck One Source (CTOS) rose 16.6% on October 27, 2026, because of third-quarter results that showed record rental activity and a raised adjusted EBITDA outlook. The stock closed at $10.51 after having opened 8.3% below the previous close. Earnings were released during the session, making the results the direct cause of the price change.

Closing price over the last 30 trading sessions. On October 27, 2026, CTOS closed at $10.51, up 16.6% on the day and 16.1% higher than 30 sessions earlier.

How big was the move

The stock rose 16.6% on the day and rose 15.5% over the last five sessions. Trading volume was 2.8 times its 20-day average, and the session move was 5.2 times a typical daily move for this stock. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% on the day while the Industrials sector median rose 1.3%, leaving Custom Truck One Source 15.3 percentage points better than the sector median. The stock had a beta of 1.51, indicating it tended to move more than the market.

Each bar is one day's price change; the outlined bar is October 27, 2026. A typical daily move over the past year was 2.9%, so the latest move equals 5.7 times that. Moves outside the dashed lines (about 5.8%) are unusual.

The technical picture

The stock sat 12.0% above its 20-day moving average and 12.3% above its 50-day moving average. It was 19.4% above its 200-day moving average and had spent 157 consecutive trading days above that level. The 50-day average was above the 200-day average, a sign of an established uptrend. The Relative Strength Index (14 days) stood at 66, inside a neutral range between 30 and 70, and the stock traded 14.1% below its 52-week high.

Closing price over the past year. CTOS ends the period 12.2% below its 52-week high, above its 50-day average ($9.36) and above its 200-day average ($8.81).

Price momentum had been strong over multiple horizons: the stock rose 12.9% over one month, 8.1% over three months and 59.0% over one year, putting it 45.3 percentage points ahead of the S&P 500 over the past year. Volatility measured 51% annualized over 60 days, which was higher than 53% of its own readings over the past five years.

Fundamentals and valuation

For the four quarters through September 30, 2026, the company reported revenue of $2.05 billion, which grew 5.8% from a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share for that period were $0.13. Gross margin widened to 21.1% from 18.9% a year earlier, and operating margin improved to 8.9% from 6.8% a year earlier. Free-cash-flow margin was 5.8% and return on invested capital was 5.3%.

Quarterly revenue by period end. The latest quarter brought $495M, 2.7% more than the same quarter a year earlier.

The balance sheet showed net debt of 0.0 times EBITDA and the company’s share count increased by 1.5% over one year. Market value stood at $2.06 billion. Valuation measures were elevated: price to trailing earnings was 81.3 times trailing earnings and price to forward earnings was 77.9 times expected earnings. The price to trailing earnings figure was higher than 78% of its own readings over the past five years, with a five-year median of 41.5 times earnings. Free-cash-flow yield was 5.7%.

Those valuation ratios contrast with the company’s improving margins and cash generation: margins and return metrics have moved in the right direction, but investors are pricing growth and profitability into a high multiple.

Earnings and analyst expectations

Custom Truck One Source reported third-quarter 2026 results showing record rental activity and improved profitability; quarterly earnings were $0.01 per share, matching the Zacks consensus and reversing a year-ago loss of $0.03. On the earnings call, management increased its adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year, marking the third upward revision in 2026, a development covered by Seeking Alpha and Zacks Investment Research.

Diluted earnings per share by quarter. The latest quarter shows $0.01, against -$0.03 in the same quarter a year earlier.

The report beat or matched expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter. The last report was described in the data as 20.0% above estimates, and the average surprise over the last four reports was 100.0% above estimates. Historically, the typical two-day reaction after recent reports had been that the stock fell 1.7%.

Analysts tracked by the data set show a consensus rating of Buy. Eight analysts covered the stock and 75% assigned a Buy or Strong Buy rating. The consensus price target was $13.00, 23.7% above the closing price.

What to watch

Next report: March 9, 2027
Last report: October 26, 2026; earnings per share of $0.01 against $0.01 expected, 20.0% above estimates
Management raised full-year adjusted EBITDA outlook during the earnings call (reported by Seeking Alpha and Zacks Investment Research)
Consensus price target $13.00, 23.7% above the closing price
Consecutive quarters beating estimates: 4

Full CTOS analysis: scores, chart and financials →