SPS Commerce (NASDAQ: SPSC) reported revenue of $197.6 million for the third quarter of 2026, which ended September 30, up 4% from $189.9 million a year earlier, and trimmed its full-year revenue forecast for the third time this year. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, rose 17% to $70.9 million, and the company raised its full-year profit outlook.
SPS, based in Minneapolis, runs a network that connects retailers with the brands, manufacturers, distributors and logistics providers that supply them. Its revenue grew 22% from a year earlier as recently as the second quarter of 2025. On the call on October 29, chief financial officer Joe Del Preto said the sale of a business and changes Amazon made to its policies took 5 points off growth in the quarter, and that its Amazon business accounted for all of the lower forecast.
The quarter
Revenue landed just above the midpoint of the $196.3 million to $198.3 million range SPS gave in July. Profit beat the top of its ranges: non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.39 against $1.20 to $1.23. Analysts expected $1.22 a share and slightly lower revenue, according to the Zacks Consensus Estimate published by Yahoo Finance.
Q3 | 2026 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
Revenue | $197.6M | $189.9M | +4.1% |
Adj. EBITDA | $70.9M | $60.5M | +17% |
GAAP op. margin | 20.2% | 16.4% | +3.8 pts |
GAAP EPS | $0.85 | $0.67 | +27% |
Non-GAAP EPS | $1.39 | $1.13 | +23% |
Source: SPS Commerce's third-quarter release. Margins and the EPS changes are SaasBuzz calculations from the reported figures.
SPS spent $48.8 million on buybacks in the quarter, and diluted shares fell about 5% from a year earlier, to 36.2 million, so earnings per share grew faster than net income, which rose 20% to $30.7 million.
Five quarters of slowing growth
The slowdown began well before the divestiture. Growth fell from 22% in the second quarter of 2025 to 16% in the third and about 13% in the fourth, then to under 6% in each quarter of 2026. SPS was also adding acquired businesses in 2025: it spent a net $142.6 million on acquisitions in the first nine months of that year, according to its cash flow statement, and its releases do not report an organic growth rate.
Quarter | Revenue | Growth |
|---|---|---|
Q4 2024 | $170.9M | 17.9% |
Q1 2025 | $181.5M | 21.3% |
Q2 2025 | $187.4M | 22.0% |
Q3 2025 | $189.9M | 16.0% |
Q4 2025 | $192.7M | 12.8% |
Q1 2026 | $192.1M | 5.8% |
Q2 2026 | $197.8M | 5.5% |
Q3 2026 | $197.6M | 4.1% |
Source: SPS Commerce's quarterly releases, filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to its 8-Ks. Growth from a year earlier is a SaasBuzz calculation from the reported revenue; the releases round it to whole percentages.
Revenue has also stopped rising from one quarter to the next. The fourth-quarter 2025 release called that period SPS's "100th consecutive quarter of revenue growth," a count every release since at least the third quarter of 2024 had carried. First-quarter 2026 revenue then came in $531,000 below the fourth quarter's, and third-quarter revenue was $168,000 below the second's. None of the three 2026 releases repeats the count.
What management said slowed it
SPS sold its 3P Revenue Recovery business on June 30. The company said in July that the sale would remove about $10.5 million of revenue from the second half of 2026 and would not change adjusted EBITDA. It also took about 7,300 customers, smaller than SPS's average, out of the count, which stood at 46,700 recurring revenue customers at the end of September, up from about 46,600 in June.
The rest of the drag came from the 1P Revenue Recovery business, which recovers money from Amazon for the suppliers it buys from. Under take-rate pricing, SPS records as revenue a percentage of the funds it recovers, so revenue moves with how much Amazon pays out. "In the quarter, Amazon has implemented certain policy changes, which have been unfavorable to recovery yields," Del Preto said, according to a Motley Fool transcript of the call published by The Globe and Mail. He said more of those customers than expected also moved to subscription pricing, which cuts revenue now but which SPS expects to help in the medium term. Chad Collins, the chief executive, said the changes concerned short shipments to Amazon and the process for disputing a claim again.
Del Preto said the two effects together "negatively impacted revenue growth by 500 basis points in the quarter," which puts growth without them at roughly 9%. Average revenue per customer was $16,200, against $15,100 in the second quarter, partly because the customers SPS sold were smaller than average.
The forecast, against July
SPS now expects 2026 revenue of $786.9 million to $788.9 million, about 5% growth, against $788.4 million to $793.4 million in July. The midpoint is $3 million lower, and with the third quarter slightly above plan, the cut falls on the fourth: July's numbers implied about $203.7 million for it, and the new range of $199.3 million to $201.3 million has a midpoint of $200.3 million, 4% above a year earlier.
Forecast | 2026 midpoint | Growth |
|---|---|---|
Feb. 12 | $802.7M | 6.8% |
April 30 | $799.0M | 6.3% |
July 30 | $790.9M | 5.2% |
Oct. 29 | $787.9M | 4.8% |
Source: SPS Commerce's quarterly releases. Midpoints and growth against 2025 revenue of $751.5 million are SaasBuzz calculations; the July and October ranges include the divestiture.
Since February the midpoint has fallen $14.8 million. The divestiture accounts for $10.5 million of that, by the company's estimate. Needham analyst Scott Berg asked on the call whether Amazon was behind the whole change to the fourth quarter. "100% of that was related to the Amazon policy changes and the acceleration of moving customers from take rate to subscription," Del Preto said. "If we didn't have the impact of those changes, we would have raised guidance on the year." He said fourth-quarter revenue growth would be 8% to 9% excluding both effects.
Profit guidance went the other way. SPS raised its full-year adjusted EBITDA range to $267.4 million to $269.4 million, from $264.6 million to $269.1 million, and non-GAAP earnings per share to $5.05 to $5.11, from $4.84 to $4.93. Del Preto did not give a 2027 forecast.
What it means for buyers and investors
By management's account, the network business beat its own plan, and the shortfall sits in a fee that depends on another company's rules. Amazon's policy sets how much any supplier gets back, whoever it pays to chase the money. Under a take rate the vendor's fee shrinks with the recoveries. SPS is moving customers to subscription pricing, which it expects to benefit the business in the medium term, though Del Preto said the take-rate model remains common in the Amazon recovery market.
For investors, the numbers point two ways. The adjusted EBITDA margin widened 4 points in a year, and buybacks are shrinking the share count. Reported revenue growth, meanwhile, has fallen in each of the last five quarters, and the revenue forecast has been lowered at each of the three reports since February. The fourth-quarter report will show whether the 8% to 9% underlying growth Del Preto described starts to reach the reported figure. The divestiture weighs on year-earlier comparisons through the second quarter of 2027.
