United Parcel Service reports quarterly results on Tuesday morning. Investors can finally look forward to growth and optimism after a difficult stretch for the parcel shipper.

For the second quarter, Wall Street is looking for earnings per share of $1.66 from sales of $21.9 billion. A year ago, UPS reported earnings per share of $1.55 from sales of $21.2 billion.

Sales are expected to grow. It's taken a while for UPS to get back to growth. Quarterly revenue has declined year-over-year fairly consistently since annual sales peaked north of $100 billion in 2022, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Revenue in 2026 is expected to be about $90 billion.)

There have been other headwinds. UPS also walked away from business with Amazon.com, starting in early 2025, citing weak profitability delivering those packages. It might be a sound business decision, but it led to additional revenue declines.

While revenue was falling, costs were rising, with the company paying higher wages to make up for recent inflation.

It's been a lot. The worst should be over -- or over soon. Wall Street projects revenue growth for the foreseeable future. Operating profit is expected to be about $8.5 billion in 2026, similar to 2025. But by 2028, profit is expected to grow to $10 billion, a level not seen since 2023.

"Just about there on cost [removal]," wrote Bernstein analyst David Vernon in a preview report. He expects the second quarter to be "solid," noting that the company should be at or near the end of many headwinds. He sees "upward pressure" on earnings estimates heading into 2027.

Upward pressure is the good kind on Wall Street. Vernon rates UPS stock Buy and has a $133 price target.

The stock could use something positive. Coming into Tuesday trading, UPS stock, at just under $113 a share, was up about 14% year to date, but it was down from post-Covid highs north of $210.

All the headwinds and declines have left UPS stock trading for about 15 times earnings expected over the coming 12 months, down from about 17 times five years ago.

Investors hope some growth can give UPS stock and its valuation a boost.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2026 17:35 ET (21:35 GMT)

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