Canadian Tire Q3 2026 Earnings: EPS Up 36%, Retail Profit Up 2.9%
Canadian Tire Corporation’s Q3 2026 earnings landed before the open on November 12, 2026, with diluted earnings per share of $4.27 for the 13-week quarter ended October 3, up 36.4% from $3.13. The Class A Non-Voting shares were trading at $217.76 at 2:33 p.m. ET, up 6.24% from the previous close of $204.97, which puts the price above its highest level of the past year, an intraday $211.02 set on November 5. Price data is from Yahoo Finance.
The stores grew profit 2.9%. Both figures are the company’s own, and the distance between them is the quarter.
The beat against consensus was 49 cents a share
Analyst consensus was $3.78 a share, per Yahoo Finance, against normalized diluted EPS of $4.27. That is ahead by $0.49, and it is a genuine beat. It is not 36%. Consensus on this name is quoted on the company’s normalized basis, so the normalized actual is the only fair comparison.
Normalized is Canadian Tire’s own measure, its reported results with items it treats as unusual stripped back out. If that distinction is new to you, our guide to how to analyse a company’s financials covers where adjusted lines sit next to audited ones, which matters more than usual here, because the space between the two bases is where the story sits.
Set that against the price. Four quarters of Canadian Tire’s own normalized diluted EPS, as the company printed them in its seasonal trend table, add to $14.70: $4.47 in Q4 2025, $2.02 in Q1 2026, $3.94 in Q2 2026 and $4.27 in the quarter just reported. At $217.76 that is about 14.8 times. The $14.70 is our arithmetic, four of the company’s own printed quarters added together rather than a figure Canadian Tire reports, and the four quarters carry different share counts.
Where the 36.4% came from: last year’s charges and a smaller share count
Two things did that work, and the company prints both.
The first is the base. Q3 2026 carried no normalizing items at all. Q3 2025 carried $47.8 million of them pre-tax: $29.7 million of restructuring costs and $18.1 million of other transformation and advisory costs, both tied to the True North strategy, worth $35.2 million after tax, or $0.65 a share. Last year’s $3.13 was depressed by charges the company itself backs out and this year’s $4.27 was not. Take them out of both sides and per-share earnings grew 13.0%, from $3.78 to $4.27. That is the whole of the 23-point gap between the two growth rates, not most of it: with nothing to normalize this quarter, last year’s charges in the base are the only thing standing between 36.4% and 13.0%. The detail is laid out in the company’s own Q3 2026 Management’s Discussion and Analysis.
Reported and normalized diluted EPS by quarter, from the seasonal trend tables in Canadian Tire’s Q3 2026 MD&A, PDF p. 12.
The second is the share count. Normalized net income attributable to Canadian Tire shareholders from continuing operations was $219.6 million against $204.3 million, up 7.5%. Normalized EPS on those same profits was up 13.0%. The difference is 4.7% fewer shares: weighted average diluted shares of 51,458,865 against 53,975,767. Our arithmetic on the company’s own two figures puts $219.6 million over last year’s share count at $4.07, against the $4.27 reported. About twenty cents of the per-share result is the share count rather than the business.
Income before income taxes says it with the share count out of the way. Reported, $319.4 million against $249.9 million, up 27.8%. Normalized, $319.4 million against $297.7 million, up 7.3%, an increase of $21.7 million that the company attributes to the Financial Services and Retail segments.
The stores added $5.5 million of profit, the credit card book $14.8 million
Retail is the business shareholders picture. Retail sales were $4,742.8 million, up 4.4%, on segment revenue of $3,889.7 million, up 5.0%. The $853 million between those two lines is the Dealer and franchise structure: retail sales count what Dealer operated and franchise stores ring through at retail value, while revenue is the wholesale amount Canadian Tire recognizes on what it sells to those stores. Reported income before income taxes rose 36.9%, to $197.9 million from $144.6 million, but that prior-year figure is the one carrying the restructuring charges. Normalized, the segment earned $197.9 million against $192.4 million: up 2.9%, or $5.5 million. The figures behind that $5.5 million are $21.9 million more in gross margin dollars, partly offset by $5.3 million of unfavourable other income on a normalized basis, $5.7 million more in net finance costs, $3.6 million more in SG&A and $1.8 million more in depreciation and amortization.
One retail measure moved further than the profit line. Retail return on invested capital was 11.2% against 10.6%, up 68 basis points, which the company calculates over a rolling 12 months on normalized earnings.
Financial Services did more in dollars. Revenue was $433.7 million, up 8.1% on higher interest revenue, with the gross margin rate at 49.1% against 47.8%. Income before income taxes was $99.2 million against $84.4 million, up 17.5%, an increase of $14.8 million. That segment had no normalizing items in either period, so its reported figures are also its normalized ones. So the credit card book added $14.8 million of segment profit year over year against $5.5 million from the stores, close to three times as many dollars from the smaller business.
Income before income taxes by segment, Q3 2025 against Q3 2026, with the Retail prior-year figure on its normalized basis. Canadian Tire Q3 2026 MD&A, PDF pp. 13, 20 and 23.
CT REIT went the other way. Property revenue was $161.3 million, up 6.8%, but income before income taxes fell 5.6%, to $110.6 million from $117.1 million, mainly on a smaller fair value gain on investment properties: $20.8 million against $36.6 million a year ago.
One line inside Retail is worth pulling out. Canadian Tire holds a 67.9% effective interest in CT REIT and received $39.9 million of distributions from it in the quarter, booked in Other income in the Retail segment. Retail’s Other income was $40.3 million, so that line is very nearly all an intercompany distribution from the REIT the parent controls. The rents behind it are reported separately in CT REIT’s own third quarter, worth reading beside this one if you hold either.
Comparable sales stepped up, and the top line leaned on the pumps
Consolidated retail comparable sales grew 3.2%, against 1.8% a year earlier. Year to date the figure is 1.1% against 4.0%, so the quarter is a step up inside a soft nine months. Comparable sales for 2026 are calculated by aligning the 2025 fiscal calendar to the 2026 one. Canadian Tire Retail was led by Living and Seasonal & Gardening, SportChek by licensed clothing, team sports and athletic footwear, and Mark’s by workwear and men’s industrial footwear.
| Banner | Revenue | Revenue change | Retail sales growth | Comparable sales | A year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian Tire Retail | $2,308.0M | +0.7% | +0.9% | +3.2% | +1.2% |
| SportChek | $607.0M | +2.6% | +3.6% | +3.2% | +4.0% |
| Mark’s | $343.9M | +5.6% | +5.8% | +3.3% | +2.5% |
| Petroleum | $623.6M | +28.0% | +23.3% | n/a | n/a |
Source: Canadian Tire Q3 2026 MD&A, pp. 15 and 17.
The qualifier sits in Petroleum. Retail sales were up 4.4% in total but 1.7% excluding Petroleum, and it is that 1.7% the MD&A pairs with its phrase “with growth across all banners”. Petroleum retail sales rose 23.3%, which the company attributes to higher per litre gas prices partly offset by lower volumes. Gasoline volume growth was negative 1.5%. Customers bought less fuel at higher prices, and that lifts the consolidated rate. The 1.7% is the read on the stores.
Margin followed the same mix. The Retail gross margin rate was 31.7% against 32.7%, most of that difference being Petroleum, which carries a much lower rate. Excluding Petroleum it was 35.6% against 35.8%, down 16 basis points, which the company puts down to lower product margin. Loyalty sales rose 6.3% and eCommerce sales 15.3%, with loyalty penetration at 58.3% from 56.5%.
The credit card book: balances up, losses flat
Gross average accounts receivable reached $7,922 million, up 4.2%, and credit card sales rose 4.7%. The average number of accounts with a balance was 2,369 thousand, up 1.1%, and the average balance on those accounts $3,344, up 3.1%.
Credit quality held. The net credit card write-off rate was 7.2% on a rolling 12-month basis, a 2 basis point increase that the company describes as stable. The past due rate, PD2+, improved to 3.4% from 3.5%. The allowance rate came down 44 basis points to 11.7%, inside the previously disclosed range of 11.5% to 13.5%, while the allowance itself was relatively unchanged from the second quarter, at $934.7 million against loans receivable.
So cardholders are carrying a little more, more accounts carried a balance, losses are flat and past dues are marginally better. That is a read on Canadian Tire’s own cardholder base, not on the Canadian household generally.
A second straight ten cent raise alongside a 4.7% smaller share count
On November 11, 2026 the board raised the annual dividend to $7.30 from $7.20, about 1.4%, which the company counts as its 17th consecutive annual increase. The quarterly dividend of $1.825 is payable March 1, 2027 to holders of record on January 31, 2027. On the newly declared rate, our arithmetic puts the forward yield at 3.35% at $217.76, or 3.56% at the previous close.
Last year’s increase was the same size. On November 5, 2025 the board took the rate to $7.20 from $7.10, also about 1.4%. Two straight ten cent raises, in a year whose latest quarter grew normalized EPS 13.0%, and the raise itself is ten cents a year on about 51.5 million shares. The company’s stated long term target is to pay out 30% to 40% of the prior year’s normalized net income.
Both routes for returning cash drew about the same amount this year, and the dividend line shrank. Dividends paid over the 39 weeks were $269.9 million, down from $271.8 million a year earlier, even though the rate per share went up: the share count came down faster than the rate went up. Shares repurchased in fiscal 2026 through October 3 came to $268.5 million, almost exactly the same sum.
The buyback behind that figure is the $400.0 million repurchase intention announced on November 6, 2025 and due for completion by the end of 2026. Through October 3, 1,691,701 shares had been bought for $310.9 million, roughly 78% of the program, being $42.4 million in Q4 2025 and $268.5 million in fiscal 2026 to date. Class A Non-Voting Shares outstanding were 48,082,630 against 49,996,942 a year earlier.
A dividend rising 1.4% next to a share count falling 4.7% is a choice about how cash reaches shareholders. Both routes pay the holder, but only one of them arrives as income. The same question, asked of the payers we do rank, is what our list of the best Canadian dividend stocks sorts on: payout sustainability and balance sheet strength rather than the length of a streak.
Today’s move against seven quarters of results-day reactions
Canadian Tire usually reports before the open, so the market’s verdict lands in the same session. Seven of those sessions are on record. The four beats in that record split two up and two down, from a 5.7% gain to a 4.1% fall, and all three misses fell. Across all seven, the results-day move averaged negative 2.1% on our arithmetic. Beating has not reliably paid on this name, which is part of what makes today’s move stand out.
| Reported | Quarter | Surprise vs consensus | Results-day move |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-02-13 | Q4 2024 | -4.6% | -7.8% |
| 2025-05-08 | Q1 2025 | +62.8% | +4.6% |
| 2025-08-07 | Q2 2025 | -9.2% | -10.6% |
| 2025-11-06 | Q3 2025 | +33.2% | +5.7% |
| 2026-02-18 | Q4 2025 | +17.5% | -1.2% |
| 2026-05-14 | Q1 2026 | +11.5% | -4.1% |
| 2026-08-13 | Q2 2026 | -0.4% | -1.3% |
| 2026-11-12 | Q3 2026 | +12.9% | +6.2% so far |
Q4 2025 was reported after the close, so its reaction session is the following day. Every other row is the release session itself.
The best prior results-day gain in that record was 5.7%, a year ago on the Q3 2025 report. Today’s 6.24% at 2:33 p.m. ET already runs past it, and past what a beat has bought on this name in any of the seven. The session is not over, so the claim stays conditional: if it holds through the close, it would be the largest results-day gain in the eight quarters on record. Seven completed quarters is a record rather than a distribution, and it says nothing about the next one.
One thing to carry into that next one: footnote 1 to the seasonal trend table records that Q4 2025 included an additional week of retail operations. Fiscal 2026 ends January 2, 2027, so the fourth quarter Canadian Tire reports in February will be a 13 week period set against a 14 week one.
On the company’s own numbers, this was a quarter in which the stores grew normalized profit 2.9%, the credit card book grew pre-tax profit 17.5%, the prior-year comparison was depressed by charges that did not repeat, and the share count did about twenty cents of the per-share work.
Disclaimer: The content on bestcanadianstocks.ca is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Company figures are from Canadian Tire Corporation’s Q3 2026 Management’s Discussion and Analysis for the 13 weeks ended October 3, 2026. Share price and analyst consensus as of 2:33 p.m. ET on November 12, 2026.
