Medpace Surpasses Expectations with Strong Q3 2026 Earnings and Record-Breaking New Business Awards
Medpace, a leading clinical research organization, has just reported its third quarter 2026 earnings results, exceeding expectations across various key metrics. During the company's recent conference call, CEO August Troendle highlighted the strong business environment and impressive growth achievements.
The Q3 revenue reached $716 million, marking an 8.5% year-over-year increase and a significant contribution to the nine-month total of $2.13 billion, up 16.9% from the same period in 2025. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) also showed substantial growth, reaching $172.1 million in Q3 2026, a 16% increase from $148.4 million in Q3 2025.
Medpace's EBITDA margin expanded to 24% in the third quarter, compared to 22.5% in the prior year period, largely due to lower reimbursable costs. The company's net income of $137.5 million for the same period increased by 23.7%, with interest income and a reduced effective tax rate contributing to this growth.
CEO August Troendle emphasized that the high-quality RFP activity and strong initial award notifications contributed to Medpace's success in Q3 2026, resulting in net new business awards reaching an all-time high during the quarter. Net new business awards entering backlog increased by 10.6% from the prior year to $873.4 million and rose to $3.02 billion over the last 12 months, a 23.9% increase.
The company's ending backlog as of September 30th, 2026, stood at approximately $3.2 billion, representing a 5.6% rise from the prior year. Medpace projects that roughly $1.99 billion of its current backlog will convert to revenue within the next 12 months.
In terms of customer concentration, the top five and top 10 customers accounted for around 31% and 39%, respectively, of the company's last 12 months' revenue. The strong cash flow generation enabled Medpace to end the quarter with $705 million in cash reserves and a negative net days sales outstanding of 66 days.
The company expressed confidence in its performance, stating that there is no large disconnect between analyst consensus estimates and their current modeling of 2027. However, Medpace will provide guidance for next year at the time of Q4 reporting in February.
