Alight's Revenue Decline Steepens in the Second Quarter

The Tip Desk · August 4, 2026 · 3 min read

Second-quarter revenue was $511 million, and the company guided third-quarter sales to $469 million to $479 million.

Alight, Inc. (ALIT), a benefits administration provider of health, wealth and leave solutions, reported second-quarter revenue of $511 million, down 3.2% from $528 million a year earlier. That year-over-year drop was steeper than the 2.6% decline to $534 million in the first quarter, when the company had already cited lower net commercial activity.

Chief Executive Officer Rohit Verma said the results once again exceeded the company’s expectations for both total revenue and adjusted EBITDA, and that the business remained highly cash generative. He said the quarter included continued strengthening of management ranks, market traction on modernization initiatives, and the completion of insourcing critical client service functions that had been outsourced. Investment focus, he said, remained on leveraging AI to improve user experience and service excellence.

The company attributed the revenue decline primarily to lower net commercial activity, partially offset by an increase in project revenue. Recurring revenue was $471 million, or 92.2% of the total, versus $492 million a year earlier. Project revenue was $40 million.

Gross profit fell to $142 million, or 27.8% of revenue, from $176 million, or 33.3%, a year earlier. The company said the decrease was primarily attributable to lower revenues. Adjusted gross profit was $176 million, or 34.4% of revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations declined to $92 million, or an 18.0% margin, from $127 million, or a 24.1% margin, a year earlier. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased $21 million to $109 million from $130 million, primarily due to lower severance and other restructuring costs. Interest expense was $24 million.

Net loss from continuing operations was $10 million, or $0.38 a share, versus a $1,073 million loss, or $40.57 a share, a year earlier. The year-ago loss included a $983 million non-cash goodwill impairment related to Health Solutions. The improvement in the pretax loss from continuing operations was primarily attributable to that prior-year impairment and non-operating fair-value remeasurements of the tax receivable agreement and financial instruments.

Cash and cash equivalents were $215 million as of June 30, 2026. Total debt was $1,996 million, and total debt net of cash was $1,781 million. For the six months ended June 30, cash from operations was $152 million and free cash flow was $101 million.

Verma said that as the company moves through its operational transformation, the back half of the year is expected to be impacted by commercial execution experienced in 2025 and seasonally higher expenses in the third quarter. He said liquidity remains strong to support continued implementation of the company’s strategy, and that early results from enhanced customer engagement and account management efforts are helping build deeper client partnerships that the company believes will support stronger retention.

For the third quarter of 2026, Alight expects revenues in the range of $469 million to $479 million and adjusted EBITDA of $55 million to $61 million. That third-quarter outlook sits below the second-quarter outlook issued in May of $490 million to $505 million in revenue and $80 million to $90 million in adjusted EBITDA. Full-year 2026 guidance is revenues of $2,078 million to $2,098 million and adjusted EBITDA of $400 million to $415 million.