Rolls-Royce Holdings (LSE:RR.) confirmed on Thursday that full-year 2026 guidance of £4.7bn-£4.9bn in underlying operating profit and £3.8bn-£4bn in free cash flow remains intact, as the London-listed aerospace and defence engineering group announced an accelerated £1.5bn interim share buyback.
The new tranche forms part of Rolls-Royce's existing £7bn-£9bn buyback programme spanning 2026 to 2028, and will be completed by the company's full-year results on 25 February 2027.
It follows the substantial completion of the previously announced £2.5bn buyback tranche for 2026, which had reached £1.4bn as of the company's half-year results in July.
Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said the business had delivered "strong operational, strategic and financial progress" in the second half, adding that the accelerated buyback "reflects our continued confidence in sustainable free cash flow growth driven by our transformation".
Rolls-Royce also said it will revisit its mid-term targets at the February results, as previously communicated.
In Civil Aerospace, the company's largest division by profitability at the half-year stage with a 25.3% margin, large engine order backlog has grown to around 2,500 engines, with second-half orders including 70 Trent 7000 engines for Avolon and 22 for the Cathay Group.
Large engine flying hours rose 4% year-on-year in the first ten months to 114% of 2019 levels, up from 113% at the half year, supporting an expectation that full-year flying hours will land toward the lower end of the previously guided 115%-120% range.
Power Systems reported order intake up 62% year-on-year in the first nine months, with the order backlog reaching a record £8.6bn at the end of September, up from £8bn at the half year, driven by gas engine orders for data centre power demand that nearly tripled year-on-year.
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Rolls-Royce SMR, the company's small modular reactor unit, expanded its partnership with ČEZ in the Czech Republic to three sites during the period, supporting plans to deploy up to 3GW of capacity, and in September launched a UK supplier programme covering £1.4bn of contracts over the next year.
S&P Global upgraded Rolls-Royce's credit rating to A- with a stable outlook in September, following earlier upgrades from Moody's and Fitch earlier in the year.
Rolls-Royce will report full-year 2026 results on 25 February 2027.