CBRE’s Q3 Earnings Top Estimates but Leasing Lags Behind

Shares of CBRE’s stock were trading lower by almost 3 percent on Thursday morning, despite the real estate services firm’s stronger-than-expected earnings results during the third quarter of 2026. 

CBRE posted core earnings per share of $2.05 for the third quarter, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.97 per share and growing by 28 percent for the quarter on a year-over-year basis. The firm’s net income reached $443 million for the quarter, a 22 percent increase from $363 million during the third quarter of 2025.

Meanwhile, revenue for the three months ending Sept. 30 was up 13 percent year-over-year to $11.5 billion, but missed the consensus estimate by 2.16 percent.

“CBRE produced another quarter of strong financial results and continued to make strategic gains in targeted areas of our business,” Bob Sulentic, chair and CEO at CBRE, said during Thursday morning’s earnings call. “Strategically, we continue to advance both our critical infrastructure services business line, which operates as part of the Building Operations & Experience segment as well as the broader infrastructure services work we perform across the company.”

A key focus on the call was CBRE’s $610 million acquisition of London-based data center equipment company Onnec Group. CBRE executives called the acquisition a strategic deal as the firm continues to invest in data centers and other infrastructure.  

“In 2027, we’re expecting our critical infrastructure services revenue to reach $4.5 billion, and our infrastructure revenue to reach $7 billion. There’s a tremendous amount of growth there,” Emma Giamartino, CBRE’s chief financial officer and chief investment officer, said during the call. “We’ll likely have more M&A. We have a strong pipeline, particularly in the data center space, and we expect to do more in 2027.” 

However, office leasing for the third quarter dipped by 2 percent year-over-year, CBRE noted in its earnings report. This was driven mostly by supply issues, according to Sulentic, but the firm has optimism for the fourth quarter. 

“It is a little counter to broadly what we see going on in leasing,” Sulentic said on the call. “We have some big deals that are going to slip into Q4, which is why we have confidence, in part, that we’ll see double-digit growth in leasing in Q4. We’re prominent in the bigger markets around the U.S., and I think if you look at the REITs and their best assets in the biggest markets, we’re running out of space to lease, and that’s having an impact on the business as well.” 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.