EMCOR lifts 2026 outlook as data centres push its booked work to $18.57bn

EMCOR Group published its third-quarter 2026 results on 29 October. The Norwalk, Connecticut contractor booked revenue of $5.54bn for the three months to 30 September, up 28.8% from $4.30bn a year earlier, with organic growth of 25.5%. Net income rose to $399.9m and diluted earnings per share to $9.04, from $6.57.

The order book

Remaining performance obligations (RPOs), EMCOR's measure of contracted work still to deliver, reached a record $18.57bn. That is $5.96bn, or 47.2%, more than a year earlier. The company named its network and communications sector, which covers data centres, as the biggest driver of the increase.

Get MEP Digest every TuesdayThree-minute read. Free. One-click unsubscribe.

On the earnings call, management said data centre RPOs stood at $8.74bn, more than double the level a year ago, and that data centres account for about a third of revenue so far this year. Healthcare RPOs were $1.71bn, up 31%. Chairman, President and CEO Tony Guzzi was blunt about demand: "We have more data center constructors that want to work with us than we can serve."

Where the growth came from

Both of the big construction segments grew sharply. US electrical construction revenue rose to $1.85bn from $1.29bn, with operating margin up to 13.3% from 11.3%. US mechanical construction rose to $2.55bn from $1.78bn, although its margin eased to 12.1% from 12.9%. US building services grew more slowly, to $852.4m.

Acquisitions added $313.3m of revenue in the quarter, and EMCOR has paid $797.4m for businesses in the first nine months. On the call, management said Schmidt Electric in Austin and Connelly Electric in the Chicago area both closed in the quarter. It is also adding fabrication-only shops for piping racks and HVAC units over the next two quarters.

Guidance and capital

EMCOR raised its 2026 revenue guidance to $20.6bn to $21.0bn, from $20.0bn to $20.5bn, and now expects non-GAAP diluted EPS of $34.50 to $35.50. The board added $500m to the share buyback, and the quarterly dividend now stands at $0.40 a share, up from $0.25 a year earlier.

Labour is part of the bid

Guzzi told analysts that staffing is built into pricing from the start: "We put a manpower plan together whenever we even estimate work". That matters in a tight market. The Associated Builders and Contractors put the national construction unemployment rate at 3.5% in September, and its economist said data centre construction is taking a large share of the available skilled workforce.

The bigger picture

A week after Comfort Systems reported $17.81bn of backlog, EMCOR's numbers point the same way. Between them, EMCOR and Comfort Systems now hold more than $36bn of contracted work, much of it tied to data centres, and both are buying regional electrical and mechanical firms to add capacity.

What it means for hiring

With data centre RPOs more than doubling in a year, we expect competition for electrical and mechanical project managers with mission-critical experience to stay intense through 2027.
EMCOR's habit of building a manpower plan into every estimate suggests that estimators who can price labour risk accurately are becoming more valuable, not just those who can price materials.
In our view, the pace of tuck-in electrical acquisitions means regional contractor leaders should expect approaches from both acquirers and rival firms looking to backfill.

Share Ask Matthew about this →