Commercial vehicle retailer Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ: RUSH.A) reported revenue ahead of Wall Streets expectations in Q3 CY2025, but sales were flat year on year at $1.88 billion. Its GAAP profit of $0.83 per share was 1.8% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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“The commercial vehicle industry continued to face challenging operating conditions in the third quarter of 2025. Freight rates remain depressed and overcapacity continues to weigh on the market. In addition, while the industry gained some clarity regarding the tariffs that will be imposed on certain commercial vehicles and parts beginning November 1, economic uncertainty and regulatory ambiguity remains, especially with respect to engine emissions regulations. These factors are impacting our customers’ vehicle replacement decisions. On a positive note, we experienced modest gains in aftermarket revenue and light-duty vehicle sales. However, overall demand remained soft, particularly with respect to new heavy-duty and medium-duty commercial vehicle sales,” said W.M. “Rusty” Rush, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Rush Enterprises, Inc.

Company Overview

Headquartered in Texas, Rush Enterprises (NASDAQ: RUSH.A) provides truck-related services and solutions, including sales, leasing, parts, and maintenance for commercial vehicles.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Luckily, Rush Enterprises’s sales grew at a solid 9.9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. Its growth beat the average industrials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Rush Enterprises’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its revenue was flat over the last two years.

We can dig further into the company’s revenue dynamics by analyzing its most important segments, Vehicles and Aftermarket, which are 31.5% and 20.9% of revenue. Over the last two years, Rush Enterprises’s Vehicles revenue (new and used commercial trucks) averaged 18.9% year-on-year declines while its Aftermarket revenue (parts and services) averaged 13.7% declines.

This quarter, Rush Enterprises’s $1.88 billion of revenue was flat year on year but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 5.7%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to decline by 3.5% over the next 12 months, a slight deceleration versus the last two years. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its products and services will see some demand headwinds.

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Operating Margin

Rush Enterprises’s operating margin might fluctuated slightly over the last 12 months but has remained more or less the same, averaging 6.1% over the last five years. This profitability was paltry for an industrials business and caused by its suboptimal cost structureand low gross margin.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Rush Enterprises’s operating margin might fluctuated slightly but has generally stayed the same over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability.

In Q3, Rush Enterprises generated an operating margin profit margin of 5.3%, down 1 percentage points year on year. Since Rush Enterprises’s operating margin decreased more than its gross margin, we can assume it was less efficient because expenses such as marketing, R&D, and administrative overhead increased.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Rush Enterprises’s EPS grew at an astounding 23.7% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 9.9% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

We can take a deeper look into Rush Enterprises’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. A five-year view shows that Rush Enterprises has repurchased its stock, shrinking its share count by 4.8%. This tells us its EPS outperformed its revenue not because of increased operational efficiency but financial engineering, as buybacks boost per share earnings.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For Rush Enterprises, its two-year annual EPS declines of 12% mark a reversal from its (seemingly) healthy five-year trend. We hope Rush Enterprises can return to earnings growth in the future.

In Q3, Rush Enterprises reported EPS of $0.83, down from $0.97 in the same quarter last year. Despite falling year on year, this print beat analysts’ estimates by 1.8%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Rush Enterprises’s full-year EPS of $3.37 to grow 1.2%.

Key Takeaways from Rush Enterprises’s Q3 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Rush Enterprises blew past analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. EPS also beat. Zooming out, we think this was a fine quarter. The stock remained flat at $50.38 immediately after reporting.

So do we think Rush Enterprises is an attractive buy at the current price? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free for active Edge members.