WTW grew organic revenue 5% and lifted adjusted EPS 17% to $3.35 in Q2 2026, but GAAP EPS fell 27% to $2.43 on Newfront deal costs and a prior-year tax gain; it also launched a $625M AI plan targeting ~30% adjusted margin in 2028.
Revenue
$2.5B
+9.1% YoY
Net income
$229M
-30.8% YoY
Diluted EPS
$2.43
-26.8% YoY
Operating margin
14.8%
How WTW compares with Financials peers
Figure
WTW
Peer median
Rank
Revenue growth (YoY)
+9.1%
+14.1%
39th of 55
Operating margin
14.8%
31.4%
28th of 32
EPS growth (YoY)
-26.8%
+20.6%
48th of 52
Rank 1 = fastest revenue growth, highest operating margin, fastest EPS growth. Peers are the other Financials companies with a 2026 report on this site, each at its latest period we've analyzed; fiscal calendars differ, so periods are not always the same months.
WTW, the insurance broker and HR/benefits consultant formerly known as Willis Towers Watson, reported that underlying growth picked up in the second quarter of 2026. Organic revenue growth, which strips out currency moves and acquisitions, rose to 5% from 3% in the first quarter, driven by a jump in the Risk & Broking unit to 7%. Reported profit went the other way. Net income attributable to WTW fell 31% to $229 million and diluted EPS dropped 27% to $2.43. Two things caused the drop: a one-off tax benefit that flattered the prior-year quarter, and $61 million of costs tied to the January acquisition of the tech-focused broker Newfront. On the company's adjusted basis, which excludes those items, EPS rose 17% to $3.35. Alongside the results, management announced "Propel", a $625 million AI and automation program aimed at an adjusted operating margin of about 30% in 2028.
At a glance
7% organic growth in Risk & Broking (Q1: 2%). The broking business turned around within one quarter, helped by new business and client retention in corporate broking and by software sales in the Technology practice.
$3.35 adjusted EPS, up 17%, against $2.43 GAAP EPS, down 27%. The two numbers point in opposite directions. GAAP (the official accounting standard) figures carry Newfront deal costs this year and lost a $74 million tax gain from last year.
$450 million of buybacks in the quarter (about 1.73 million shares), plus a new $1.5 billion of buyback authority. The diluted share count fell 6% to 94 million, which explains roughly 6 of the 17 points of adjusted EPS growth.
Q2 2026 results
Metric
Q2 2026
Q2 2025
YoY Change
Revenue
$2,466M
$2,261M
+9.1%
Organic revenue growth
Read 0 community reports on Willis Towers Watson, or write your own.Write a report
Organic growth is WTW's own measure. It excludes currency effects and acquisitions/divestitures, so it shows whether the existing business sold more. Operating margin is the share of revenue left after running the business, before interest and tax.
Of the 9% reported revenue growth, about 3 points came from acquisitions (mainly Newfront, a US broker bought on January 27, 2026 for $1.05 billion upfront, plus Cushon, a UK workplace savings business) and about 1 point came from currency. The remaining 5% is organic growth. Interest earned on client money that WTW holds while passing premiums to insurers fell to $33 million from $40 million, and WTW says it added nothing to organic growth.
The two businesses
Segment
Revenue
Organic growth
Segment margin
Margin change
Health, Wealth & Career (HWC)
$1,270M
4%
24.1%
+30 bps
Risk & Broking (R&B)
$1,164M
7%
22.2%
+100 bps
Risk & Broking places insurance for businesses and advises insurers, earning commissions and fees rather than taking on insurance risk itself. It accounted for most of the quarter's improvement. Segment operating income rose 16% to $258 million. The filing attributes Corporate Risk & Broking's growth to "new business activity and strong client retention globally", and says Insurance Consulting and Technology grew "primarily from strong software sales in the Technology practice." Software license sales tend to be lumpy, so part of the jump from 2% to 7% may not repeat each quarter. Six-month R&B organic growth is 4%, which is more modest.
Health, Wealth & Career covers employee benefits consulting, pensions and retirement advice, pay consulting, and benefits administration. It grew 4% organically, with segment income up 9% to $306 million. Health grew in all regions, and Wealth benefited from more retirement work. Career (pay and communications consulting) was flat because work in the Middle East was "constrained... due to the ongoing conflict". In Benefits Delivery & Outsourcing, lower commissions in Individual Marketplace, which sells individual health and Medicare plans, partly offset outsourcing gains.
Takeaway: The underlying business did better this quarter, even though GAAP earnings fell. Adjusted operating income rose 15% on 5% organic growth. Both segments widened their margins. The GAAP decline comes from a tax gain in the prior year and from acquisition-related pay costs this year that WTW excludes from its adjusted figures. Those Newfront costs will continue: up to $400 million of contingent consideration is to be paid mostly in equity awards and expensed as compensation. That means the gap between GAAP and adjusted results will persist, and Propel will add to it.
What the headline numbers hide
The prior year's GAAP profit included a one-off. In Q2 2025 WTW recorded a $21 million tax benefit, an effective tax rate of −6.8%. The filing puts this down to "favorable discrete items including an adjustment to the tax provision associated with the earnout received from the sale of our Willis Re business". This year's GAAP tax rate was 19.8%. WTW removed $74 million ($0.74 per share) of that prior-year gain from adjusted EPS, so the adjusted comparison is fair and the GAAP comparison is not.
What adjusted excludes this year: $61 million ($0.65 per share) of transaction and integration expense, "primarily... incremental share-based compensation and transaction-related costs attributable to our Newfront acquisition", plus $55 million of amortization of acquired intangibles. In the other direction, it also removes $8 million of non-cash pension income. Deal-related stock pay is still a real cost to shareholders because it dilutes them. Total share-based compensation for the six months was $109 million, up from $68 million.
Where adjusted EPS growth came from. Adjusted net income rose 11% ($316M vs $285M) and adjusted EPS rose 17%, so the lower share count added roughly 6 points. Taxes and financing worked against growth. The adjusted tax rate rose to 19.6% from 18.0%. Interest expense rose 22% to $78 million because of senior notes issued in late 2025 and a $775 million term loan drawn to help fund Newfront. The operating improvement is real: adjusted operating income rose 15%.
Costs grew slower than revenue. Salaries and benefits rose 7% (about one-third of that from the acquisitions) against 9% revenue growth, and fell to 63% of revenue from 64%. Other operating expenses rose 13% on higher non-income taxes, professional fees and office costs, which offset some of the gain.
Cash conversion improved from a low base. Six-month operating cash flow was $474 million against $534 million of net income, about 0.9x. That is up from about 0.6x a year earlier ($326M vs $571M). Free cash flow (operating cash flow minus capital spending) rose to $360 million from $217 million, which WTW attributes to margin expansion. Receivables fell to $2,603 million from $2,702 million at year-end while revenue grew, so there is no sign of billing being pulled forward.
The balance sheet is less cash-rich. Cash fell to $1.6 billion from $3.1 billion at year-end after about $1.0 billion for Newfront and Cushon and $750 million of buybacks in the half. Total debt rose to $6.53 billion from $6.31 billion. Goodwill and intangibles rose by about $1.1 billion.
Guidance was held, with small changes. Full-year 2026 guidance is "unchanged". The expected currency benefit for the rest of the year was cut to about $0.05 per share from about $0.10 in April, while the full-year figure stays at about $0.35. The Q2 release added segment organic-growth guidance: mid-single digits for both HWC and R&B. First-half organic growth was 3% for HWC and 4% for R&B, so both need a faster second half to reach that range.
Propel: the 2028 margin target
Propel is a two-year program approved on July 28, 2026 to "embed AI and automation across the enterprise". WTW expects to spend about $625 million in cash plus about $25 million in non-cash charges through the end of 2028. The money covers severance and retention, process redesign, and AI system implementation. The target is about $400 million of annual run-rate savings. After WTW reinvests about $50 million, net savings would be about $350 million, supporting an adjusted operating margin of about 30% in 2028. That compares with 20.8% for the first half of 2026 (Q2 is seasonally weaker; Q1 was 22.3%).
In simple terms, WTW plans to spend about $1.60 in cash for each $1 of annual savings. That pays back in under two years if the savings materialize. Readers should expect GAAP earnings to fall further below adjusted earnings while the program runs, because restructuring-type costs sit in GAAP results. The savings also have to be net of any fee pressure if clients expect AI-driven efficiencies to be shared with them.
Outlook
Management expects:
~100 bps of annual adjusted margin expansion in R&B and incremental expansion in HWC
$1.0 billion or more of buybacks in 2026 ($750 million done by June 30)
Newfront to dilute adjusted EPS by about $0.10 in 2026, on about $250 million of post-close revenue at a ~26% adjusted EBITDA margin
a ~$0.30 adjusted EPS headwind from the Willis Re joint venture
Our read: the quarter supports the margin story more than the growth story. Margins widened in both segments, and costs other than deal-related costs are growing slower than revenue. Organic growth, though, is running below the mid-single-digit guidance for the half. Q2's 7% in R&B leaned partly on software sales, and Career revenue is being held back by the Middle East conflict. The next two quarters will show whether R&B can stay near 5% or more without another large software quarter. They will also show how much of the Propel spend WTW excludes from adjusted results, and whether buybacks continue at this pace with cash now at $1.6 billion and new debt on the balance sheet.
Source: WTW Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed July 30, 2026) and the accompanying Q2 2026 earnings release; Q1 2026 comparisons from the Q1 2026 earnings release.