Shares in AAON, the US maker of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment, surged about 22% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the company reported record third-quarter sales and raised its full-year outlook for a third time.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based group, which also makes liquid-cooling systems for data centres, reported net sales of $707.4 million for the three months to 30 September, up 84.1% on a year earlier and well above the roughly $600 million analysts had expected.

Record sales and a big earnings beat

Adjusted earnings came in at $0.83 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.27. Gross profit rose 76.4% to $188.5 million, with gross margin of 26.7%, while operating income more than doubled, rising 129.3% to $100 million.

Sales of AAON-branded equipment grew 19.6% to a record $310.2 million, and the company's total order backlog rose 40.5% year on year to $1.9 billion at the end of September, pointing to continued demand from commercial buildings and data centres.

President and chief executive Matt Tobolski said the results reflected strong manufacturing throughput and improving operational execution, as the company converts its backlog into sales more quickly.

Guidance raised for a third time

AAON raised its full-year 2026 outlook, lifting expected net sales growth to between 72% and 75%, from a previous range of 55% to 60%. The new range implies full-year revenue of about $2.5 billion, above the roughly $2.3 billion analysts had pencilled in.

The company also expects a full-year gross margin of about 26%. It was the third increase in the sales outlook this year, after an original forecast of 18% to 20% growth.

Investors welcomed the numbers despite a blemish in the same release. During the third-quarter reporting process, AAON found errors in its first- and second-quarter financial statements, involving revenue recognition and software subscriptions, and restated them. The corrections increased first-half net sales by $10.7 million and diluted earnings per share by $0.09.

Restatement and controls warning

The company also said it had identified a material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting and was working to fix it. Management stressed that the errors were found through its own enhanced review procedures, and the restatement lifted rather than lowered the earlier results.

Even so, the disclosure is a reminder that rapid growth brings risks. AAON has been expanding capacity aggressively to meet data-centre cooling demand, and its finance chief has cautioned that capital spending will stay elevated in the near term, even as those investments near completion.

For now, the market has chosen to focus on the trading. The shares had fallen sharply in recent months, touching a 52-week low of $53.13 on 5 November, before Tuesday's rebound. With backlog at a record and guidance raised again, investors are betting that demand for the company's cooling equipment will keep outrunning its accounting headaches.