J.B. Hunt's Q2 2026 revenue rose 19% to $3.50 billion and diluted EPS rose to $1.91 from $1.31, driven by a 58% jump in intermodal operating income on 10% more loads, while tighter truck capacity squeezed its brokerage and truckload units.
Revenue
$3.5B
+19.4% YoY
Net income
$181M
+40.8% YoY
Diluted EPS
$1.91
+45.8% YoY
Operating margin
7.4%
Overview
J.B. Hunt's second quarter of 2026 (April–June) showed a big year-over-year profit improvement: revenue rose 19.4% to $3.50 billion, operating income rose 31.5% to $259.5 million, and diluted earnings per share jumped from $1.31 to $1.91. Most of the profit gain came from one segment — Intermodal, where operating income rose 58% as loads grew 10% and the rail-and-truck network ran more efficiently.
Two things in this quarter need reading carefully:
A large part of the revenue growth is fuel, not freight. Fuel surcharge revenue — the extra amount customers pay to cover diesel costs, which moves with fuel prices — rose from $351.9 million to $641.5 million. Excluding it, revenue grew 10.8% ($2.58 billion to $2.85 billion), still solid but roughly half the headline rate.
Truck capacity is getting tighter and more expensive. The two businesses that hire outside truckers — brokerage (ICS) and Truckload (JBT) — kept a smaller share of each revenue dollar even as revenue soared. The 10-Q says purchased transportation costs rose "as third party capacity has tightened across the industry." That same tightness is what is pushing shippers toward intermodal, which is why the company as a whole still came out well ahead.
Key metrics
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Total operating revenue
$3,495.3M
$2,928.2M
+19.4%
Revenue excluding fuel surcharge
$2,853.8M
$2,576.3M
+10.8%
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Operating margin is operating income divided by total revenue — the share of each sales dollar left after running the business, before interest and tax. Operating statistics (loads, revenue per load, trucks) are from the Q2 2026 earnings release (Exhibit 99.1 to the July 15, 2026 8-K); all other figures are from the 10-Q.
Segment performance
J.B. Hunt reports five businesses. Intermodal moves containers long distances by rail, with J.B. Hunt trucks handling the first and last miles ("dray"). Dedicated Contract Services (DCS) runs private truck fleets for individual customers under multi-year contracts. Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) is a freight broker that books outside carriers. Final Mile Services (FMS) delivers large items like furniture and appliances to homes and businesses. Truckload (JBT) moves full trailer loads using independent-contractor drivers and third-party carriers.
Segment
Revenue Q2 2026
Revenue Q2 2025
Change
Operating income Q2 2026
Operating income Q2 2025
Change
Intermodal (JBI)
$1,754M
$1,438M
+22%
$150.9M
$95.7M
+58%
Dedicated (DCS)
$921M
$847M
+9%
$102.5M
$93.7M
+9%
Brokerage (ICS)
$388M
$260M
+49%
$1.7M
$(3.6)M
loss to profit
Final Mile (FMS)
$198M
$211M
-6%
$5.6M
$8.0M
-30%
Truckload (JBT)
$240M
$177M
+35%
$(1.3)M
$3.4M
profit to loss
Total (after inter-segment eliminations)
$3,495M
$2,928M
+19%
$259.5M
$197.3M
+32%
Intermodal: the core of the quarter
Intermodal delivered $55.2 million of the company's $62.2 million increase in operating income. Loads rose 10.1%, with the Eastern network up 16% and the transcontinental network up 5%. The 10-Q attributes the demand to "the strong value proposition it presents for customers facing higher fuel prices and constrained driver and capacity availability in other transportation modes" — in plain terms, when diesel is expensive and trucks are hard to find, putting freight on a train becomes relatively cheaper.
Pricing did less than the headline suggests. Gross revenue per load rose 10.8% to $3,034, but excluding fuel surcharges it rose only 1%. So the margin improvement (segment operating income rose from 6.7% to 8.6% of segment revenue) came mainly from running the network better, not from charging more: the company cites higher dray productivity, fewer empty container moves, lower container storage costs, and cost-cutting. The equipment numbers back this up — the segment used an average of 112,301 containers and trailers in the quarter versus 102,603 a year ago, while its total count at quarter-end actually fell slightly (124,199 vs 125,265). More loads on roughly the same equipment is where the profit leverage came from. Offsets were higher insurance premiums and claims, and higher driver pay.
Dedicated: steady, fleet flat
DCS revenue grew 9%, but the fleet did not grow — average trucks were essentially flat at 12,658, and the end-of-quarter count (12,744) was just 5 trucks higher than a year earlier. Revenue per truck per week rose 9.1%, but excluding fuel surcharge it rose only 2%, from contractual price escalators tied to cost indexes. Operating income rose 9% to $102.5 million, helped by lower group medical costs and partly offset by insurance, equipment and new-customer start-up costs. The earnings release notes about 140 net truck additions versus the end of Q1 2026 and customer retention of about 96% — the first sign of fleet growth after a flat year.
Brokerage and Truckload: revenue up sharply, margins squeezed
These two segments show the tightening truck market from the other side. In ICS, loads rose 18.5% and revenue per load rose 25.9% (to $2,477), lifting revenue 49%. But the cost of the outside trucks it books rose faster — purchased transportation up 54%, per the earnings release — so gross profit margin (what ICS keeps after paying carriers) fell from 15.5% to 12.5%. Because volume and rates rose so much, gross profit still grew 21% and the segment moved from a $3.6 million loss to a $1.7 million profit. The margin did tick up from 12.0% in Q1 2026.
In JBT, loads rose 13.8% and revenue per load excluding fuel rose 13%, yet gross profit fell 12% and the segment swung to a $1.3 million operating loss, "primarily due to increased purchased transportation costs." Trailer turns improved 13%, so the equipment is working harder; the problem is the price of the third-party trucks pulling it. The independent-contractor tractor count fell to 1,880 from 2,041.
Final Mile: deliberate shrinking
FMS revenue fell 6% and stops fell 13.7% (861,905 vs 998,916), which management attributes to lost business from "ongoing internal efforts to improve revenue quality and profitability across certain accounts." Operating income fell 30% to $5.6 million on lower revenue and higher purchased transportation.
Costs: what moved
Rents and purchased transportation — payments to railroads and outside truckers — rose 32.4% to $1.68 billion and climbed to 48.0% of revenue from 43.3%, due to higher rail and truck rates plus more volume.
Salaries, wages and benefits rose just 0.4% to $820.4 million while revenue rose 19%, falling to 23.5% of revenue from 27.9%. Lower group medical costs and office headcount offset higher driver wages and incentive pay. This is the clearest evidence of the cost-reduction programme.
Fuel and fuel taxes rose 53.0% to $235.2 million on higher fuel prices. Fuel surcharge revenue rose by about $290 million against about $81 million more in fuel expense, but much of the surcharge is passed on to railroads and carriers inside purchased transportation, so it inflates revenue far more than profit.
General and administrative costs fell 12.2% on lower building and yard rent and lower bad-debt expense.
Because fuel surcharges inflate revenue, the reported 7.4% operating margin understates the improvement. Measured against revenue excluding fuel surcharge, operating income was 9.1% versus 7.7% a year earlier (our calculation from the income statement).
Below operating income: debt paydown and buybacks
Net interest expense fell 21.2% to $16.8 million because average debt was lower: total debt was about $1.15 billion at June 30, 2026, down from $1.72 billion a year earlier, after the company retired $700 million of senior notes in March 2026. The effective tax rate fell to 25.4% from 26.9%.
EPS grew faster than net earnings (45.8% vs 40.8%) because there were fewer shares: diluted shares averaged 94.9 million versus 98.0 million a year earlier. The company bought back about 392,000 shares for $97.8 million in the quarter and had $791.4 million left under its buyback authorization at June 30. The quarterly dividend is $0.45 per share, up from $0.44 a year earlier.
Cash and investment
First-half operating cash flow was $723.3 million versus $806.2 million a year earlier, lower mainly because of working-capital timing. Net capital spending was just $144.9 million in the first half versus $399.1 million a year earlier. Cash on hand at June 30 was $4.2 million, with $54 million drawn on a $1.0 billion credit line and $350 million of term loans outstanding.
Takeaway: J.B. Hunt's profit jump is an intermodal efficiency story, not a pricing story: intermodal revenue per load rose only 1% excluding fuel, but 10% more loads ran on roughly the same container fleet, and that segment supplied almost 90% of the quarter's operating income gain. The same tight trucking market that is driving freight onto rail is squeezing the brokerage and truckload units, so results now depend on intermodal volume holding up while outside truck costs keep rising.
Outlook
The 10-Q gives two numerical items for 2026:
Tax rate: the 2026 annual effective tax rate is now expected at 24.0%–24.5%.
Capital spending: net capital expenditures of $600–$800 million for full-year 2026. With only $144.9 million spent in the first half, that implies roughly $455–$655 million in the second half — a sharp step-up that will weigh on cash flow. About $611.5 million of equipment purchases (net of trade-ins) is already committed for 2026–2027.
No revenue or earnings guidance was given. Our read: the 10-Q notes that full-load freight volumes are seasonally higher from August through early November, which should support intermodal volume in Q3. The risks are on the cost side — rising purchased transportation already pushed JBT to a loss and cut ICS's gross margin by three points, insurance and claims costs are rising across segments, and fuel surcharges would shrink revenue quickly if diesel prices fell, with much less effect on profit. For Q3, the signals to watch are whether intermodal revenue per load excluding fuel starts to rise (real pricing power rather than fuel pass-through) and whether the Dedicated fleet keeps growing from the ~140 trucks added since Q1.