What happened?
Shares of real estate firm JLL (NYSE:JLL) jumped 11.8% in the afternoon session after the company reported third-quarter 2026 financial results that were above analyst estimates, raised its full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance, and announced a $500 million accelerated share repurchase program.
According to a company press release, JLL reported revenue of $7.3 billion, up 12% in local currency, above analyst projections of $7.24 billion. Leasing services rose 27% in local currency and capital markets rose 21%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 52% in local currency to $6.76, above the consensus estimate of $6.11. Adjusted EBITDA increased 33% to $460.2 million. The company raised its full-year adjusted diluted earnings per share forecast to reflect 37% growth at the midpoint and said it intends to execute a $500 million accelerated share repurchase imminently, which would bring full-year repurchases to more than $1 billion.
On the earnings call, management put the updated full-year adjusted earnings per share range at $25.20 to $26.30 and said the accelerated repurchase represented more than 3% of shares as of October 23 and is expected to be completed by year-end. Management also said U.S. leasing strength spanned industrial, office, and data centers, with data centers about 5% of total revenue in the quarter.
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What is the market telling us
JLL's shares are not very volatile and have only had 9 moves greater than 5% over the last year. Moves this big are rare for JLL and indicate this news significantly impacted the market's perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 12 months ago when the stock dropped 6.5% on the news that it reported underwhelming earnings. JLL reported revenue of $6.51 billion, which was in line with analyst estimates, and an adjusted earnings per share of $4.50, beating forecasts by 5.5%. However, the market's negative reaction suggested investors were more focused on the company's longer-term challenges. The earnings report highlighted several areas of concern, including sluggish annualized revenue growth over the last five years, historically weak free cash flow generation, and a mediocre return on invested capital that has been trending downwards. These underlying issues pointed to potential difficulties in finding profitable growth avenues, overshadowing the positive headline figures for the quarter.
JLL is flat since the beginning of the year, and at $334.68 per share, it is trading 14.8% below its 52-week high of $392.79 from August 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of JLL's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,266.
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