Bunge Global Q3 2026: GAAP EPS up 91% to $1.64, but adjusted EPS rose 13% as crushing carried the quarter

Bunge's third-quarter GAAP earnings per share from continuing operations rose 91% to $1.64, but most of that jump is an accounting comparison, not a better business. A year ago, paper losses on Bunge's hedges (what it calls "mark-to-market timing differences") cut EPS by $0.87; this quarter they cut it by only $0.28. On Bunge's adjusted measure, which strips out those timing effects and one-off items, EPS rose 13% to $2.56. That growth came from oilseed crushing in North America. It was partly offset by much weaker palm oil and specialty ingredients and by lower grain, freight and sugar results. Net sales rose 7.4% to $23.8 billion. This is also the first quarter where both years include Viterra, the grain handler Bunge bought on July 2, 2025, so the year-over-year comparison is close to like-for-like for the first time.

Q3 2026 results

Bunge does not report an operating income line. Its main profit measure is EBIT (earnings before interest and tax), so the margin row uses total EBIT divided by net sales. Margins this thin are normal for a commodity processor: Bunge buys and sells crops worth tens of billions of dollars and keeps a few cents on each dollar. Net income includes the $3 million loss from discontinued operations in Q3 2025, so it rose slightly faster than income from continuing operations ($318M vs $169M, +88%).

Takeaway: Bunge's GAAP EPS nearly doubled, but its underlying earnings grew about 13%, almost all of it from crushing soybeans and canola in North America. The rest of the portfolio went backward: palm oil and specialty ingredients lost two-thirds of their adjusted profit, and grain merchandising and milling lost more than a quarter. Holding the full-year range now depends on Q4 being the strongest quarter of 2026.

Segments: crushing up, everything else down

"Processing" (crushing) means pressing oilseeds into vegetable oil and protein meal. The crush margin is the gap between what the seeds cost and what the oil and meal sell for, and it drives most of Bunge's profit. "Refining" turns crude oil into food-grade oil. "Merchandising" means buying crops and reselling them.

• Soybeans. Adjusted EBIT rose 18% even though tonnes crushed fell 3% and tonnes merchandised fell 27%. So the gain came from margin per tonne, not volume. The release says "North America was the largest contributor to the improved performance, driven by stronger processing results, partially offset by lower refining". Argentina and Brazil processing also improved, and so did Europe. Fertilizer, refining and origination in South America and processing in Asia were weaker, and so was global soybean oil merchandising. US crushing volume was flat on the year.
• Softseeds (canola, rapeseed, sunflower). Adjusted EBIT rose 20% and tonnes crushed rose 15%: "Softseed processing volumes increased across all regions, supported by the more favorable margin environment." North America processing and refining led. Europe refining and biodiesel, Argentina, and global distribution were weaker. The segment also took a $10 million charge for inventory damaged in the Ukraine-Russia war.
• Tropical Oils and Specialty Ingredients (palm oil, specialty fats, soy protein). Adjusted EBIT fell to $16 million from $51 million. Bunge blames "near-term margin impacts associated with geopolitical trade disruptions, along with commissioning, ramp-up and plant transition costs" in tropical oils and soy protein concentrate. Volumes rose 5%, so this was a margin problem, not a demand problem.
• Grain Merchandising and Milling. Reported EBIT swung to a $74 million loss, mostly because of an $82 million charge on the announced sale of two Brazilian sugarcane mills ($66 million impairment, meaning a write-down of the mills' book value, plus $16 million of hedge losses). Before that charge and timing effects, the segment earned $87 million, against $120 million a year ago. Grain merchandising and commercial services improved, but "lower results in ocean freight, sugar and wheat milling" more than offset them. Volumes were roughly flat at 23.8 million tonnes.

What the headline numbers hide

• The 91% EPS jump is mostly a comparison effect. Bunge hedges the crops it owns and has agreed to buy or sell. Accounting rules value some of those contracts at market prices each quarter but not the matching future sales, so paper gains and losses appear and later reverse. They cost $0.87 a share in Q3 2025 and $0.28 this quarter. That $0.59 swing explains most of the GAAP EPS increase of $0.78. Adjusted EPS, which removes timing effects in both years, rose $0.29.
• GAAP vs adjusted: $0.92 a share separates them. Adjusted EPS of $2.56 excludes $0.28 of timing losses and $0.64 of "certain charges": $82 million on the Brazilian sugar mill sale, $21 million of remaining Viterra integration costs (down from $107 million a year ago), and $21 million tied to the Ukraine-Russia war ($10 million of damaged inventory plus a $13 million tax charge to write down deferred tax assets). Integration costs should keep shrinking. The sugar mill loss is a genuine one-off.
• Lower corporate costs helped. Adjusted Corporate and Other costs fell $16 million, which Bunge attributes to "performance-based compensation and favorable foreign exchange impacts". That is about 18% of the $89 million rise in adjusted total EBIT.
• Interest costs rose. Net interest expense was $188 million, up from $145 million, mostly because interest income fell to $20 million from $57 million. Bunge raised its full-year net interest guidance to $640–$670 million.
• Cash conversion is weak, but seasonal. Operating cash flow over nine months was −$2.3 billion against net income of $1.13 billion. Working capital absorbed $4.3 billion, $3.6 billion of it from inventories, which are up 26% since December to $16.6 billion. Bunge reports $14.7 billion of that as readily marketable inventories, meaning grain and oilseeds it can sell quickly, and the build is typical ahead of the Northern Hemisphere harvest. Excluding working capital, adjusted funds from operations were $2.0 billion, up from $1.18 billion (the prior-year period included only one quarter of Viterra). The build was paid for with debt: short-term borrowings rose to $6.5 billion from $3.9 billion.
• Buybacks helped only slightly, and they have stopped. Diluted shares fell 2.0% to 194 million, which accounts for about 2 points of the 12.8% adjusted EPS growth. Bunge bought back no shares in Q3. Year-to-date repurchases were $249 million, unchanged from the first half, after it completed its $2 billion program in Q2. A year ago it bought back $545 million in Q3. Dividends were $139 million in the quarter, the same as a year ago.

On balance the quarter is flattered: GAAP EPS rose 91%, but adjusted EPS rose 13%. Most of the reported jump comes from last year's $0.87 of hedge-timing losses largely not recurring, not from the business.

Did last time's read hold up?

Our Q2 2026 report said the raised guidance relied on crush margins staying strong through the harvest. It also said grain merchandising and milling (the Viterra business, the main reason for the deal) was not yet driving the upside. Both calls held. Crushing delivered: adjusted EBIT in the two processing segments rose 19% combined. Grain merchandising and milling did not: its adjusted EBIT fell 28%, with ocean freight, which had helped in Q2, now one of the drags. We also said Q3 would give the first clean read of growth with Viterra in both years. That read is about 7% sales growth and about 12% adjusted EBIT growth, with the gain coming from crushing, not from Viterra's grain network.

Outlook

Bunge held its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS outlook at $9.25–$9.75. Inside that unchanged total, the segment mix has shifted:

• Soybean Processing and Refining: slightly lower than the previous outlook
• Softseed Processing and Refining: unchanged
• Tropical Oils and Specialty Ingredients: lower
• Grain Merchandising and Milling: higher, after being cut in Q2
• Corporate and Other: unchanged

Other guidance: an adjusted effective tax rate of 23–25% (was 22–26%), net interest expense of $640–$670 million (was $620–$660 million), capital expenditures toward the higher end of $1.5–$1.7 billion, and depreciation and amortization of about $975 million. After the quarter ended, the Bunge Chevron Ag Renewables joint venture started production on a new oilseed processing line in Destrehan, Louisiana.

Our read: The range is harder to reach than it looks. Adjusted EPS has risen each quarter this year ($1.83, $2.00 and $2.56), but the low end needs $2.87 in Q4, and the midpoint needs $3.12, about 22% above Q3. Guidance for the largest segment was trimmed. The offset is a better grain merchandising and milling result, but that segment's adjusted EBIT just fell 28%. Q4 is when the Northern Hemisphere harvest is processed and shipped, so a seasonal lift in crushing and grain handling is plausible. Still, the outlook needs grain merchandising to recover quickly at the same time as crush margins hold. In Q4, watch grain merchandising and milling's adjusted EBIT against Q3's $87 million, whether the $3.6 billion inventory build turns back into cash, and whether palm oil and specialty ingredients margins recover as the new plants finish ramping up. A result near the bottom of the range, or a cut in February, would be the first sign that the raised mid-year outlook leaned too heavily on crushing.