Why is the Fortescue share price on a rollercoaster today?

The Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) share price is having a bit of a wild ride today.

Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) mining giant closed trading yesterday for $18.06. In morning trade on Thursday, shares have been swinging between losses and gains.

At one point, shares were down 2.1% at $17.68 each. At the time of writing, shares have recouped those losses to be changing hands for $18.20 apiece, up 0.8%.

For some context, the ASX 200 is up 0.4% at this same time.

This wild ride for the Fortescue share price follows the release of the miner’s full-year FY 2026 results.

Here’s what’s grabbing investor interest.

Fortescue share price swings back in the green on earnings growth

Over the 12-month period, Fortescue reported revenue of US$17 billion, up 9% from FY 2025. Management credited the revenue boost to the 7% increase in the hematite (iron oxide mineral) realised price to US$91 per dry metric tonne (dmt) and a 2% increase in iron ore sales to 201.4 million tonnes.

But costs were up too, with the hematite C1 unit cost of US$18.74 per wet metric tonne (wmt) up 4% year on year.

Likely helping lift the Fortescue share price today, the company achieved a 9% increase in underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to US$8.6 billion.

And underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) was up 3% from FY 2025 to US$3.5 billion.

Potentially explaining the volatile price swings, statutory NPAT of US$2.9 billion was down 15%, reflecting a US$525 million non-cash impairment charge relating to Iron Bridge, and a US$73 million compensation claim expense.

The passive income declined as well, with management declaring a fully-franked dividend of 46 cents per share, down 23.3% from last year’s final payout.

What did management say?

Commenting on the results rocking the Fortescue share price today, Fortescue Metals and Operations CEO Dino Otranto said:

Our record operating performance this year underpinned a 9% increase in underlying EBITDA and a 25% increase in free cash flow.

We invested US$3.6 billion across the business and finished the year with US$5.1 billion in cash and net debt of just US$0.9 billion. That puts us in a strong position to continue investing in growth while delivering returns to shareholders.

And Fortescue is tapping into the artificial intelligence revolution to further ramp up productivity.

“We’re also continuing to look for ways to lift productivity and get more from our assets,” Otranto said.

He noted:

AI is one of our biggest opportunities to create value and has the potential to change almost every aspect of how we operate. We’re already putting it to work across drilling, processing, rail and haulage, and using it to optimise how we generate, store and use energy across our Green Grid.

And this is just the start. Autonomy changed how we operated and helped drive our costs down. We see AI doing the same – but on a much broader scale.

With today’s intraday moves factored in, the Fortescue share price is down 6.4% since this time last year, not including dividends.

The post Why is the Fortescue share price on a rollercoaster today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.