BETA Technologies, Inc. The gain followed record third-quarter revenue, raised full-year guidance and a newly disclosed FAA authorisation for its A250 electric aircraft, all announced before the opening bell.
BETA's release said the quarter was its strongest since inception. Revenue of $17.7 million rose 98.2% from $8.9 million a year earlier and rose 20.6% from the second quarter's $14.7 million, beating the $10.8 million analysts had forecast by 64.0%.
Guidance rose and a $4.0 billion backlog followed a landmark FAA clearance
BETA raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $52 million to $57 million, from its previous range, while keeping full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance at a loss of $400 million to $445 million, according to the release. The company said its A250 aircraft became the first electric vertical take-off and landing design to receive an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate for market surveys, permitting demonstration flights with prospective customers onboard ahead of full type certification. Commercial aircraft backlog rose to just over $4.0 billion, covering 1,040 aircraft in firm and option orders, the company said, exceeding its own year-end target early.
Gross margin widened to 72.1%, up 2.8 percentage points from 69.3% a year earlier, as higher-margin service revenue grew faster than product sales. Operating loss widened in dollar terms to −$127.8 million from −$80.6 million, reflecting higher research and development spending tied to certification programmes, even as the loss narrowed sharply as a share of a much larger revenue base.
The gain dwarfed BETA's typical daily move
The 16.0% move was 3.4x BETA's typical daily share-price swing of 4.7% over the past year, and the largest gain in this direction since 5 November 2025. Trading volume ran at 2.2x the stock's 30-day average. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% the same session, and covered aerospace and defense peers rose a median 1.0%, so the broader market and sector explain little of BETA's gain. The reaction was specific to its own results.
Cash burn widened even as revenue neared doubling
Not every figure in the release pointed the same way. Operating cash flow was an outflow of −$101.1 million in the quarter, deeper than the −$68.8 million outflow a year earlier, and free cash outflow widened to −$129.9 million from −$81.8 million a year earlier. Net loss narrowed sharply to −$119.1 million from −$437.2 million, though that year-ago figure included a large one-off charge tied to a preferred-stock issuance rather than operating performance alone. The question for anyone weighing the rally is whether the backlog converts into cash generation before certification spending peaks.
BETA's next quarterly filing will be the first test of whether the guidance increase holds and whether operating cash outflow starts to narrow alongside revenue growth, rather than widening further as it did this quarter. For more on the company's financial history, see Fundamentalytics' full company analysis of BETA Technologies.