FTI Consulting Posts Q3 Results, Takes $46 Million Restructuring Charge as Shares Jump 14%

What happened

FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN), a Washington, D.C.-based management consulting firm that advises companies on corporate finance and restructuring, economic matters, forensic and litigation work, and technology, filed a Form 8-K on Oct. 30, 2026 covering its third-quarter 2026 results and a restructuring plan.

According to the filing, the company issued a press release on Oct. 29, 2026, reporting financial results for the three and nine months ended Sept. 30, 2026, and held a conference call the same day. The filing says FTI also initiated a plan in the third quarter to align staffing with demand, including targeted headcount reductions and real estate actions.

The filing states affected employees were notified by Oct. 29, 2026, and that the plan covers about 4% of the company's more than 8,200 employees, with reductions spanning the third and fourth quarters of 2026.

FTI recorded a $46.0 million special charge in the third quarter, comprising $45.5 million in salary- and benefits-related costs from the headcount cuts and $0.5 million in non-cash real estate costs. The company said it expects an additional special charge of about $7 million in the fourth quarter, split between roughly $2 million in salary- and benefits costs and about $5 million in real estate costs.

The filing does not state what drove demand lower or which business segments were affected. Those details would be in the earnings press release and conference call materials filed as exhibits, which were not included in the text provided.

The shares closed at $181.24 on the session after the filing, up 14.28% from the prior close of $158.59, on volume of 1,263,900 shares — about 3.0 times the average volume of 421,732.

The restructuring plan

The company characterized the plan as aligning staffing with demand. A special charge is a one-time accounting entry for costs the company considers outside normal operations. Here, the bulk is severance and related salary and benefits costs, with a smaller real estate component.

The $0.5 million real estate figure is described as non-cash, meaning it does not represent current cash outlays. The $45.5 million salary and benefits portion would generally be paid in cash over time as departing employees are released, subject to notice periods.

The filing does not explain the reasons for the demand weakness that prompted the cuts. It only describes the plan and its costs.

What this means

A Form 8-K is a current report that a U.S. public company files with the SEC to disclose material events between its regular quarterly reports. Each item on the form has a number. Item 2.02 covers earnings results; Item 2.05 covers the costs of exiting or disposing of activities, which is where FTI disclosed the restructuring plan and charges; Item 7.01 covers voluntary disclosure under a rule known as Regulation FD, which requires companies to share material information with all investors at once rather than selectively; and Item 9.01 lists the exhibits attached.

The filing also identifies several non-GAAP measures the company used in its release and call, including Adjusted EBITDA—earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, further adjusted for items such as special charges. These are not standard accounting figures under U.S. GAAP, and the filing states they should be considered alongside, not instead of, GAAP results.

One adjustment worth noting is 'Extraordinary Litigation-Related Expenses,' which the filing ties to FTI Consulting, Inc. et al. v. Jonathan M. Orszag et al., a case pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The filing says that in May 2026 the court allowed FTI to file a third amended complaint adding Econic Partners LLC, a competitor, and Dr. Mark Israel, a former employee, as defendants, along with additional claims including theft of trade secrets and conspiracy to unlawfully compete. The suit was originally filed in November 2023 against Mr. Orszag, a former employee, to enforce his employment agreement. Starting in the second quarter of 2026, FTI began treating those litigation costs as non-recurring for non-GAAP purposes.

The rest of what usually follows a restructuring announcement—how much the company expects to save, and how the affected business lines are performing—was not described in the filing text available here. That information would be in the earnings release and call transcript attached as exhibits.