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DATE

April 30, 2026, 10 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer — Gerben W. Bakker
  • Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer — Joe Capazzoli
  • Vice President, Investor Relations — Daniel Innamorato
  • Operator

TAKEAWAYS

  • Net Sales -- $1.517 billion, representing 11% growth, with 8% organic sales growth and 3% from acquisitions.
  • Adjusted Operating Profit -- $301 million, up 18% with adjusted operating margin expanding 110 basis points driven primarily by growth in high-margin businesses.
  • Adjusted EPS -- $3.93 per diluted share, reflecting a 16% increase, primarily due to higher adjusted operating profit.
  • Share Repurchases -- $168 million repurchased at a dollar-cost average below $500 per share, with the company expecting earnings accretion from this activity in 2027.
  • Utility Solutions Segment Net Sales -- $949 million, up 11% with 7% organic growth and 3% from acquisitions; organic growth driven by 12% growth in Grid Infrastructure.
  • Electrical Solutions Segment Net Sales -- $568 million, increasing 12% with 11% organic growth, supported by 40% data center market growth and solid nonresidential demand.
  • Raised Full-Year Outlook -- Total sales growth forecast increased to 8%-11% and organic sales growth to 6%-9%, driven by stronger T&D and data center demand as well as incremental price realization.
  • Adjusted Operating Margin Guidance -- 20 basis point expansion for the year at the midpoint, weighted more toward the Utility segment; Electrical Solutions margin to be flattish for the year.
  • Free Cash Flow Conversion -- Anticipates at least 90% free cash flow conversion on adjusted net income for the full year.
  • High-Voltage Transmission Opportunity -- $1.5 billion addressable market over the next decade, expected to provide incremental growth above current projections.
  • Acquisition and CapEx Activity -- DMC Power performing above initial expectations and continued capacity investments underway; robust acquisition pipeline with focus on T&D, data center, and light industrial end markets.
  • Pricing Dynamics -- Three percentage points of the full-year 6%-9% organic growth guidance attributed to price actions, primarily enacted in response to metals inflation in early Q2; remaining growth attributed to volume.
  • Grid Automation -- Organic sales declined 7% year over year, though sales increased sequentially and management anticipates return to slight year-over-year growth in Q2.
  • Tariff Impact -- Management described the net impact from Section 232 and related tariff changes as "about neutral" for 2026.
  • Supply Chain Resilience -- No significant material constraints or disruptions reported, with the company successfully shifting supply sources amid regional disturbances.

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RISKS

  • Grid automation, including Aclara, experienced year over year organic sales declines, with management noting utilities have deprioritized AMI investments, resulting in "fewer projects come through."
  • Higher cost inflation outpaced 2025 exit rates; while offset by pricing and productivity, management signaled margin expansion for the year will be "slightly more modest" than previously projected.
  • Adjusted operating margin in the Electrical Solutions segment contracted by 30 basis points due to elevated restructuring and growth investments, despite volume growth.

SUMMARY

Hubbell (HUBB 7.02%) reported double-digit increases across key financial metrics and raised its full-year outlook, citing clear demand visibility in transmission/distribution and data center end markets. The company outlined a $1.5 billion, multiyear high-voltage transmission opportunity, positioning it for incremental growth beyond existing market forecasts. Pricing actions implemented in response to metals inflation have contributed approximately three points to organic growth guidance for the year, with further capacity investments ongoing in high-growth areas. Full-year free cash flow conversion is projected at a minimum of 90% on adjusted net income, and the company maintains a disciplined approach to capital deployment through acquisitions and strategic share repurchases.

  • Management indicated that the full-year sales and profit expansion will favor the Utility Solutions segment due to higher-margin grid infrastructure demand.
  • The company stated, "Price increases went in for us at the beginning of the second quarter, and that typically takes 30 to 60 days to work its way through the backlog," detailing the expected timing for price realization effects.
  • Joe Capazzoli reported that the impact of U.S. tariffs, including recent Section 232 changes, is "about neutral" to its financials for 2026, minimizing uncertainty from regulatory shifts.
  • Order rates for both short-cycle and longer-cycle projects started the year "close to 1.2" book-to-bill, supporting management’s confidence in raising guidance.
  • Supply chain stability continued, with raw material and component part availability maintained despite Middle East disruptions, due to diversified sourcing.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • Grid Infrastructure: Products and systems used for electricity transmission and distribution, including substations and related hardware.
  • AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure): Technology enabling two-way communication between utilities and customers’ smart meters.
  • 765 kV Transmission: High-voltage power transmission lines operating at 765 kilovolts, supporting large-scale, efficient long-distance power delivery.
  • Book-to-Bill: Ratio comparing new orders (bookings) to fulfilled orders (billings) within a period, indicating demand momentum.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Gerben W. Bakker: Great. Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to discuss Hubbell Incorporated’s first quarter 2026 results. Hubbell Incorporated delivered strong financial performance to begin the year, with double-digit growth in sales, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted earnings per share. Organic growth of 8% in the first quarter was driven by double-digit organic growth in our Electrical Solutions segment as well as our Grid Infrastructure businesses within the Utility Solutions segment. Our core utility T&D markets remain strong, with highly visible load growth driving continued strong demand in transmission and substation markets, and aging infrastructure and resiliency investments driving strong demand in distribution markets.

Electrical Solutions growth continues to be driven by strength in data center and light industrial markets, enabled by our leading brands and continued success in our strategy to compete collectively in high-growth verticals. We are raising our full-year 2026 outlook for total sales growth, organic sales growth, and adjusted earnings per share this morning, as we are confident Hubbell Incorporated’s strong position in attractive end markets and continued execution of our long-term strategy will enable us to execute through a dynamic operating environment.

Before I turn the call over to Joe to walk you through our financial performance in more detail, I would like to highlight an emerging growth opportunity for Hubbell Incorporated in high-voltage transmission, a long-term megatrend that sits squarely in our core, and we are demonstrating early success in a multiyear investment cycle. As background, 765 kV transmission represents one of the most efficient methods to move large amounts of power over long distances in order to accommodate accelerating electricity demand from electrification and load growth. Operating transmission lines at higher voltages enables utilities to deliver more power per line with lower losses and fewer space requirements.

For Hubbell Incorporated, high-voltage transmission represents a significant multiyear opportunity which is largely incremental to existing strength in traditional 345 kV transmission markets. Our leading position and strong customer relationships position us well to capture this opportunity, and we are demonstrating early success with several key project wins supporting this initial phase of high-voltage transmission buildout. Additionally, our portfolio depth and breadth position us as a preferred partner whom customers can trust to provide a full package of critical components. This solutions offering enables high service levels and reliability while driving installation efficiency and ease of doing business for our customers.

We are actively investing to support future growth in this market, including development and testing of new product offerings in collaboration with major customers, as well as in capacity expansion investments. Overall, we believe 765 kV transmission represents an addressable market opportunity of approximately $1.5 billion over the next ten years, and we believe we are well positioned to serve this attractive long-term investment cycle. With that, let me turn the call over to Joe to provide more details on our

Joe Capazzoli: results. Thank you, Gerben, and good morning, everybody. I am starting my comments on slide five. Hubbell Incorporated’s first quarter financial performance was strong, with double-digit growth across sales, adjusted operating profit, and adjusted earnings per diluted share. Net sales of $1.517 billion in the first quarter of 2026 increased by 11% compared to the prior year, driven by 8% organic growth and acquisitions contributing 3%. Consistent with our fourth quarter 2025 performance, both the Electrical Solutions segment and Grid Infrastructure products within our Utility Solutions segment delivered double-digit organic growth in the first quarter, partially offset by anticipated softness in grid automation.

Acquisitions contributed three points to growth in the first quarter, with DMC Power off to a strong start and integrating nicely within our T&D business. From an operational standpoint, Hubbell Incorporated generated $301 million of adjusted operating profit in the first quarter, representing 18% growth versus the prior year, with adjusted operating margins expanding 110 basis points year over year. This improvement in adjusted operating profit and adjusted operating margin was primarily driven by strong volume growth in high-margin businesses. While cost inflation accelerated against 2025 exit rates, as anticipated, our pricing and productivity actions continued to keep pace, more than offsetting those higher levels of inflation on a dollar-for-dollar basis in the first quarter.

We also accelerated our investment levels in the first quarter, as previously communicated, most notably to expand capacity in high-growth areas and generate future productivity. And as anticipated, we invested $7 million in our restructuring and related program to further streamline our operational footprint, primarily within our Electrical Solutions segment, which, as a reminder, R&R is included in our adjusted results. Adjusted earnings per diluted share were $3.93 in the first quarter, representing a 16% increase versus the prior year, driven primarily by adjusted operating profit growth.

Below the line, higher interest expense associated with borrowings from the DMC acquisition and a slightly higher year-over-year tax rate were partially offset by lower share count as a result of prior repurchase activity. Additionally, we repurchased $168 million worth of shares in the first quarter at a dollar-cost average below $500 per share. We expect the net impact of these repurchases to be neutral to 2026 earnings, as a lower share count will be offset by higher interest, but the repurchases of shares at attractive valuations are expected to provide us with earnings accretion in 2027. Our balance sheet remains strong and is poised to invest on behalf of our shareholders.

Our primary focus remains on internal reinvestments and acquiring differentiated businesses to bolt on to attractive areas of our portfolio. The pipeline of opportunities remains healthy and active, and we continue to remain disciplined in our approach. Share repurchases represent an additional lever that we can and will utilize to return cash to shareholders over time. Turning to page six to review our performance by segment, Utility Solutions delivered another strong quarter, with double-digit growth in sales and adjusted operating profit. First quarter performance overall reflected a continuation of the momentum we realized exiting 2025, with overall drivers very similar across end markets.

Utility Solutions generated net sales in the first quarter of $949 million, which represented growth of 11% versus the prior year and includes organic growth of 7% and acquisitions contributing 3%. Organic growth of 7% in the first quarter was driven by 12% organic growth in our larger, higher-margin Grid Infrastructure business, where demand strength was broad-based across T&D end markets. Utilities are investing at heavy rates, and demand for Hubbell Incorporated solutions to serve the expanding critical infrastructure needs of our customers is driving continued momentum in orders and providing visibility to further strength over the balance of 2026.

As we will highlight in a few minutes, we now anticipate our Utility Solutions segment to deliver high single-digit organic growth on a full-year basis. Outside of our core T&D markets, telecom and gas distribution grew attractively in the first quarter, while meters and AMI markets remained weak as anticipated. While grid automation organic sales declined 7% year over year in the first quarter, sales increased slightly on a sequential basis. We remain confident that meter and AMI markets have stabilized, and we anticipate easing comparisons and continued strength in protection and controls products will enable grid automation organic sales to return to slight year-over-year growth in the second quarter.

Operationally, HUS delivered $[inaudible] of adjusted operating profit in the first quarter, representing 21% growth in adjusted operating profit versus the prior year, with adjusted operating margins expanding 190 basis points year over year. Operating profit growth was primarily driven by strong volumes in high-margin grid infrastructure products, favorable price/cost productivity, and acquisitions, which were partially offset by grid automation volume decline. Moving to page seven, Electrical Solutions results were also strong in the quarter, with double-digit growth in net sales and adjusted operating profit. For the first quarter, Electrical Solutions generated sales of $568 million, which represented growth of 12% versus the prior year.

Organic growth of 11% was again driven by strength in data center and light industrial markets, as well as solid nonresidential growth, partially offset by softer heavy industrial markets. The Electrical Solutions segment achieved approximately 40% growth in data center markets in the first quarter, driven by strength in both balance-of-system component demand as well as sales of our modular power distribution skids. Data center order activity remained robust in the first quarter, as buildout activity continues to accelerate across hyperscaler and colocation customers, providing enhanced visibility for us to increase our full-year outlook in data center markets to more than 25%.

Broader light industrial markets remain healthy, as solid U.S. manufacturing activity generated demand for electrical components, and our strategy to compete collectively in vertical markets continues to drive outgrowth. Operationally, HES delivered $93 million of adjusted operating profit in the first quarter, representing 10% growth in adjusted operating profit versus the prior year, reflecting strong volume growth. Adjusted operating margins of 16.4% were down 30 basis points versus the prior year, as benefits from volume growth and the associated operating leverage were offset by higher investments in restructuring and growth initiatives.

As you will see in our press release financials, within the Electrical Solutions segment, we invested $6 million in restructuring initiatives in 2026 versus only $2 million in the prior year, which impacted year-over-year margins by approximately 80 basis points, as we execute on footprint optimization projects which we are confident will continue to drive long-term productivity and margin expansion. Price realization remains strong, which, combined with productivity, more than offset cost inflation on a dollar-for-dollar basis in the first quarter. Turning to page eight to discuss our full-year outlook, we are raising our full-year sales growth outlook to 8% to 11% and organic sales growth outlook to 6% to 9%.

This represents an increase of one point to the lower end and two points to the higher end of our prior full-year outlook, and is driven by both incremental price realization to offset increased inflation relative to our initial outlook as well as enhanced visibility to continued demand strength in our T&D and data center end markets. Operationally, we anticipate double-digit growth in adjusted operating profit at the midpoint of our guidance range for 2026, driven primarily by strong sales growth in high-margin areas of our portfolio. We remain confident in managing price/cost productivity to neutral or better on a dollar-for-dollar basis over the full year.

So the math on higher inflation, as well as planned investments to support accelerated growth initiatives, results in a slightly more modest outlook for full-year margin expansion versus our initial outlook. Below the line, we anticipate that a lower share count of 53.1 million shares on a full-year basis will be fully offset by higher net interest, while our assumptions for other expense and tax rate remain unchanged. Overall, we continue to anticipate at least 90% free cash flow conversion on adjusted net income in 2026, and we are raising our full-year adjusted earnings per diluted share outlook to $19.30 to $19.85 per share.

Now let me turn the call back over to Gerben to give you some more color on our confidence to deliver on this increased full-year outlook as we continue to navigate a dynamic macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.

Gerben W. Bakker: Thanks, Joe. Turning to page nine then and concluding our prepared remarks, while the current operating environment poses macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, as well as dynamic inflationary and supply chain conditions, we are confident in our ability to deliver on an increased organic growth outlook while continuing to manage price and productivity in 2026 and beyond. From an end-market standpoint, our largest, most profitable businesses are exposed to end markets such as utility T&D and data center CapEx where secular growth is being driven by long-term investment cycles. Our recent order patterns and key project wins, along with customer conversations around long-term investment planning, are providing us enhanced visibility to continued strength in these end markets.

From a price/cost standpoint, while inflation has increased relative to our initial full-year outlook, we have implemented additional price and productivity actions which we are confident will offset, and we anticipate that recent updates to various tariff frameworks are largely neutral to our existing tariff cost structure. Overall, we have demonstrated our ability to manage through an inflationary environment successfully over the last several years, and we are confident in our ability to continue to do so in 2026 and beyond. While we are closely monitoring macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions, our short-cycle demand is holding up solidly, and price and productivity actions are being realized.

Hubbell Incorporated’s portfolio is well-positioned with more than 90% sales exposure to the U.S., and over two-thirds of our portfolio exposed to secular growth markets in data center and utility, which we anticipate will continue to perform well through a broad range of economic environments. In short, we are confident that Hubbell Incorporated’s leading position in attractive end markets, as well as continued execution on our long-term strategy, will enable us to deliver attractive financial performance over both the near term and long term. With that, we will now open the call for questions.

Daniel Innamorato: Operator?

Operator: Thank you, sir. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press 11 on your telephone, and wait for your name to be announced. To remove yourself, press 11 again. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. One moment for our first question. It comes from Jeffrey Todd Sprague with Vertical Research. Please proceed.

Jeffrey Todd Sprague: Hey. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Was wondering if you could provide a little more color on the high-voltage transmission outlook—just the level of project rollout there, you see that pacing in? You gave a little bit of color there, obviously. And is that $1.5 billion TAM all incremental relative to your prior view on the market? Maybe we could start there. And it sounds like you do not see this squeezing out spending elsewhere. There has obviously been a little bit of concern that all the generation spending may eat into T&D spending. You are calling the core distribution side of the business also growing at a stable rate?

Gerben W. Bakker: Yes. Maybe I will start, overall, Jeff, with transmission. And then substation, I would probably categorize in the same area, as that is continuing to do really well for us. We communicated high single-digits growth there and certainly, I would say we are off to a very good start against that background. Particularly, the comments around 765—it is the ability for utilities to bring more bulk power into areas where it is needed. It is a very efficient way to do that. We have some lines in the U.S. that were built, I think, over 20 years ago that are 765. There just was not a need for it.

And I think that is becoming very clear right now that the ability to drive more bulk power is actually a very efficient way to do so. We are very well positioned. We have products today that can serve it already. We have won a couple of orders already in this. We are continuing to develop products, and these are just taking it to the next higher voltages. We are able to do that with our capability, certainly with our labs. So I would say very well positioned. And we look at this truthfully as incremental, Jeff. We see this as upside to what is already needed.

Any time you have a 765, you need off ramps for that, where you take the power down—think highways and offshoots of that, off ramps with substations—and then step the voltages down. So we think it is an upside for us, and we think it can drive a point of growth above what we are currently projecting with transmission already. You need both, Jeff. That is why we do not see it. Certainly, we are not seeing that in the projects that are ahead of us, the orders that we are winning. I mean, it is a logical question certainly to ask—how far can budgets flex up—but you see too that utilities are continually increasing their CapEx budgets.

And I think that is a reflection of acknowledging and realizing that you really need to spend in all these areas to get the outcome you need.

Jeffrey Todd Sprague: Okay. Great. Thank you. I will leave it there.

Daniel Innamorato: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Julian C.H. Mitchell with Barclays. Please proceed.

Julian C.H. Mitchell: Hi. Maybe just a question, please, around how we should think about operating margins through the balance of the year and the operating leverage cadence, if that has changed at all versus prior thinking, please?

Joe Capazzoli: Good morning, Julian. As far as the operating margin goes for the year, we are really looking at the full year with a 20 basis point margin expansion, and that is going to lean a little heavier towards Utility with more expansion and about flattish on Electrical. As the year progresses, I think we see the Utility side of margin expansion being pretty consistent. And certainly, on Electrical, we see a little bit of headwind just on the year-over-year comp from last year’s second quarter in Electrical, and the back half probably flattish. So that is kind of how we are thinking about margin for this year.

Keep in mind, there is a lot of inflation that has come on, and as we cover that inflation with price and productivity, that is certainly margin dilutive. So in our 20 basis points of margin expansion at the midpoint of the guide, there is about a point of dilution just from that price/cost math.

Julian C.H. Mitchell: That is helpful. And then maybe just my follow-up on the thoughts on the first half and second quarter. Maybe I missed it, but did you clarify the share of earnings in the first half? Is it still mid-high 40s? And so we are looking at kind of a $5.20-ish EPS for Q2. Any pointers on second quarter or halves phasing, please? Thank you.

Joe Capazzoli: Yes. So for the second quarter, we would think about a normal seasonal setup for this year. And let us think about that on the sequential. Typically, with our strong orders coming through first quarter, we would anticipate a second quarter step-up like we would normally see: high single-digits organic growth. And add to that, we are looking at price/cost productivity at about neutral on the dollars. And so that is really the constructive way to think about Q2.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Thomas Allen Moll with Stephens. Please proceed.

Thomas Allen Moll: Good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. Sounds like versus last quarter, we are expecting more pricing for the year, perhaps also better volumes than originally expected. So I was hoping you could unpack that 6% to 9% organic for us. How much of that is price versus volume? And how do those compare to what you provided last quarter? Thank you.

Joe Capazzoli: Coming into the year, we were anticipating about two points of price, and the majority of that was coming from wraparound from actions that we had implemented last year. As we saw some of that inflation, mostly on the metal side—copper, aluminum, steel—in the first quarter, we went out with price actions in the second quarter, and that added about a point to our full-year price outlook. So our full-year 6% to 9% organic has about three points price, with the rest being volume. If you think, Tommy, about the way that price rolled on last year, the year-over-years are going to start to wrap here into Q3.

So we would anticipate that our contribution from price fades as the year progresses, and our contribution from volume growth increases as we step through the year sequentially.

Thomas Allen Moll: Thank you. That is very helpful. I wanted to follow up on DMC. What update can you provide for us there? And in particular, are there any elements that you are seeing unfold better versus worse than the original plan? Thank you.

Gerben W. Bakker: I would say, Tommy, DMC—as we stated in our last calls—is off to a really good start. This is squarely in the area where the highest investment is going on in utility, which is transmission, and particularly this is a substation application. So I would say so far, it is meeting and even exceeding a little bit our expectations. It is also an area where we are really focused on adding capacity. I think our ability to get more out of that factory this year and next year is perhaps more a function of our ability to get capacity in place because orders are really supporting.

So we are very, very pleased with it, as we are with Systems Control—another acquisition we did last year also in this space and with very similar dynamics of good demand and need to add capacity. We are very pleased with them.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Nigel Coe with Wolfe. Please proceed.

Nigel Coe: Just want to go back to the margins. How are the Section 232 tariffs sort of changing the landscape, and maybe talk about both businesses? And I believe that you were utilizing U.S. steel down in Mexico, so any more color there would be helpful, and any thoughts on how to think about margins by segment as well?

Joe Capazzoli: Sure. Starting with the tariff, I would probably start by answering it more broadly with the events of tariff changes in the first quarter, of which, yes, February was a piece of what changed. We also saw the repeal of IEEP, we saw 01/22 come online, and we saw some of those changes in February. The sum of all of that is about neutral to us for the year. So that impact was not significant. We were paying in February, going back to Liberation Day, so February—with product lines that would have had U.S.-melted steel—the changes there were entirely offset by some other impacts on some other product lines. So overall, not significant.

On your question about margins, quarter to quarter, we have 20 basis points of expansion embedded in the guide at the midpoint for the full year. The margin expansion is going to lean more heavily towards Utility, and Utility is looking at margin expansion pretty ratably across each of the four quarters. Electrical is a little bit of headwind on the margin in the first half of the year, and that normalizes in the second half of the year to get to about flattish on the full-year margin for Electrical.

Nigel Coe: Maybe on the back of Jeff’s question on transmission—obviously very healthy growth, very vibrant end market. Some of the big players in that space are growing strong double digits in transmission. Do you see scope for your business to get up to those kinds of levels, and is the scope of your content increasing with time?

Gerben W. Bakker: On the scope, we continue to develop products, we continue to do acquisitions, and both DMC and Systems Control are two examples where scope is increasing if you add additional product lines. Also, as you look at where the voltages go—when we talk about 765—our content on that per mile would also go up slightly from the lower voltages. So I think in net, both on what we are adding to the portfolio and where the investment is going, it does increase our content a little bit. Certainly, what we are seeing is double-digit growth. Our scope is broad, and we serve the majority of what goes on a transmission line.

If you think about a transmission line, 85% to 90% of material that goes up on that, we serve. I would say we are going to get our fair share of that growth. Specifically, how many generator assets short term—it is a little harder for me to comment on that dynamic. But I would certainly say we will participate and get our fair share of the buildout.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Joseph John O'Dea with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

Joseph John O'Dea: Hi. Good morning. Just wanted to touch on grid infrastructure growth expectations throughout the year. Is it reasonable to see something like low double-digit organic through the first few quarters of the year, and then I think the comp gets a little bit tougher as you get into the end of the year, so maybe that is more mid- to high single-digit? And along with that, any color on electrical distribution—understandably, the transmission and substation are driving strength, but just what you are seeing on the distribution side.

Joe Capazzoli: Good morning, Joe. I will take the first part of that question on the Utility organic. And you are thinking about it the right way in terms of mid- to high single-digit organic growth as the year progresses, and we are anticipating it is going to be pretty consistent—Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4.

Gerben W. Bakker: Maybe on the distribution side of it, we have been talking about this for quite some time now. What is driving the need to invest there is a lot driven by upgrading and resiliency of the grid. We dealt last year—and the last couple of years really—with destock, where we talked about that underlying demand was still solid, but we were dealing with something very specific. I think that is proving out now, with the destocking behind us, that we are actually seeing the underlying demand, and the drivers of it are continued hardening.

I think it is slightly lower than transmission and substation for the reasons that we talked about—getting that power that is so needed in data centers and other areas. But we are very optimistic. And there too, if we think about the start to the year, it is not just off to a good start in transmission and substation, but distribution as well.

Joseph John O'Dea: And then just on the timing of pricing and the impact on demand—were the price announcements in the quarter in place middle of the quarter, or in place at the beginning of the second quarter? And really just around any influence on demand pull-forward. It sounds like no incremental pricing required to tariffs. Over reporting season there is some debate on what kind of pull-forward dynamics there were broadly across industrials, but the degree to which you saw any of that in the quarter—it does not sound like much carryover impact anticipated throughout the year.

Joe Capazzoli: Price increases went in for us at the beginning of the second quarter, and that typically takes 30 to 60 days to work its way through the backlog and to get to a point of fully realizing the run rate of that new price. So that all sets in during the course of the second quarter. We did not see any significant impact or unusual behavior with pull-forward on demand. That order momentum that we have seen continue going back to the fourth quarter, throughout the first quarter, and into the second quarter—nothing unusual in terms of how that sets up around our price increases that we have implemented. Price increases so far have been sticking.

Conversations with customers have been very constructive. And the basis for our price increase has been around metals, and that metals inflation has been very visible and very well accepted in the channel.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Christopher M. Snyder with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

Christopher M. Snyder: Thank you. I wanted to ask about data center. Obviously came through really good—40% in Q1. And you raised the full-year data center guide to now over 25%, previously up 15%. Is this new 25%+ basically all of your available capacity, or if demand strength is sustained, is there an opportunity to ship more this year? Thank you.

Joe Capazzoli: Good morning, Chris. We spend a lot of time on that topic with all the activity and the significant demand in data center. You would recall that roughly half of our data center exposure is in our long-cycle power distribution modular skid business, for which we have good visibility to demand. Orders are booked out through the year and there is little incremental capacity, and that feels pretty well situated, and that was well situated in our original guide. So no real change on how we are thinking about the long-cycle piece. On the short-cycle, book-and-bill side, we continue to see strong order demand coming through.

We continue to add capacity in that space—every quarter we are adding more capacity—and we continue to add inventory to every extent possible so that we have stock on the shelf for that short-cycle book-and-bill side of products needed for data center. So we think we have a little more capacity, and we continue to invest in that productive capacity coming online. We will continue to do that as the year unfolds to increase our capacity and serve that growing demand.

Christopher M. Snyder: Thank you. I appreciate that. Then I wanted to follow up on price/cost. It seems like a year ago, you led on price/cost and then over time into Q1 the cost inflation caught up, netting you closer to neutral. Should we expect the same thing into this next round of price increases—like you will lead a little bit off the bat and then it catches up a bit two or three quarters out?

Joe Capazzoli: You are definitely right in your first comment in terms of how last year played out. We were ahead on price versus cost, dating back to Liberation Day tariffs, and that benefit of being ahead kind of situated in the second quarter of last year, and we continued to run positive on PCP in each of the quarters of Q2, Q3, Q4 last year. We were positive PCP on a dollar basis to start this year, and we are anticipating managing that equation on a dollar neutral or better basis. That does have an impact on margins, as you know that math well. Do we think we can continue to hold the line on margin neutral on price/cost? No.

I think that was a little beneficial to us last year, but we are very focused on managing to neutral or better and driving that double-digit operating profit growth for this year.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Chad Dillard with Bernstein.

Chad Dillard: Question for you is on Aclara. Can you talk about the sales in the quarter and how that has trended sequentially? And then just more broadly, how that business is positioned for AMI 2.0, and how should we think about when that cycle kicks off?

Gerben W. Bakker: As you know, Aclara is part of the grid automation business, and that business continues to inflect up. We are down year over year, but the decline started to shrink, and while we still are a little bit down year over year in the first quarter, as we communicated, we expect that to start turning to growth. If you peel that apart and specifically to your question of Aclara versus the rest, clearly Aclara had been declining higher while the other part of the business was growing. What you have seen is that Aclara decline is starting to get smaller and smaller.

We still, in the first quarter, saw a decline in that business, and as you look ahead, that is an area that has been more challenged. As utilities manage budgets—it goes back a little bit to Jeff’s very first question of how are utilities managing budgets—our view, and certainly indications from conversations, is that they are de-selecting this a little bit over other areas of investment, and we have seen fewer projects come through. But the challenge for utilities is that this equipment is going to fail at some point. The lifespan of this is not in the range of what our typical components are. What we are seeing is more project discussions right now. We are quoting more projects.

We won a pretty nice piece of business that is multiyear. From where we sit today with this business decline, we should expect, going forward, to start seeing this business realizing modest growth. We feel it has stabilized—we have seen the bottom—we are now starting to come up. We are not expecting great growth rates, but the dynamics are such that this business should grow from here.

Chad Dillard: Great. That is helpful. And then moving over to grid infrastructure, I know in the past you have talked about your order rates within distribution. I was hoping you could give an update on how those trended for the quarter, and can you break down how much of the demand you are seeing is restocking the channel versus pure sell-through into the end market?

Gerben W. Bakker: Our view is that the demand is what is going up on infrastructure and not going to stock. We are off to a good start on revenue, and that is driven by order rates on both the Electrical and Utility side, but particularly T&D was also up nicely in the quarter. We generally do not talk about book-and-bill a lot; it is about order rates because we are a more short-cycle business. Our orders were up over one. That is not atypical in the first quarter, where people are starting to get their orders in to get ready for construction season, and that is typically a little bit over one.

We were up stronger than that—close to 1.2 to start off the quarter. That is both a mix of short cycle, or book-and-bill, that was solid, as well as projects. We talked earlier about some of these projects. We feel really good about the start to the year, and it is what has driven us to raise our organic guidance. I realize there is a piece of that is price, but there is a piece that is volume as well. We feel really good about how we started the year, and we see a continuation of this—nothing unusual in it.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Scott Graham with Seaport Research Partners. Please proceed.

Scott Graham: Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. You have a global manufacturing footprint. With inflation higher and some of the geopolitical uncertainties, how is your supply chain behaving? Are you getting what you need? Are you getting any pushback in any corners? I think I heard Joe say no, not yet, on pricing, but we are starting to hear “enough is enough”—some corners are pushing back on pricing in different markets. How is your supply chain behaving overall? And then as a follow-up, how is your acquisition pipeline? It looks like your balance sheet is very lean right now, and I was wondering what the outlook was for 2026. Anything you can say?

Joe Capazzoli: Good morning, Scott. On the supply chain, we are not seeing any significant impacts or constraints. What would be more noteworthy is that over the course of the last couple of months, with some of the disruption in the Middle East, we did have a little bit of aluminum that we were purchasing out of that region—that would be a noteworthy area. We do have other qualified sources of supply around the globe. We were able to move that to other suppliers, and we were not, at the end of the day, impacted by that, but it was something we had to address. We are not seeing constraints in other areas yet—chips or metals or component parts of any substance.

So I would say the supply chain, as we see it right now, is holding up well and supporting what we need to do to service our customer demand.

Gerben W. Bakker: Let me take the second one on M&A. You are right to point out that our balance sheet certainly supports doing acquisitions at larger scale than perhaps we were able to afford in the past. Before we look at the pipeline, we are focused clearly around the core areas of our business—anything in T&D, around data center, and lines around our light industrial markets. Those are all areas that we find very attractive, and there is still, based on our pipeline of deals that we are looking at, plenty of opportunity to deploy our capital there. Of course, timing is not always very predictable. But you have also seen—and Joe highlighted—what we did in share buyback during the first quarter.

In periods where perhaps there is a little bit of a void in acquisition, we think utilizing our balance sheet to do buybacks is another attractive area to deploy capital. Of course, our highest preference goes to CapEx, and we certainly have increased that, and based on some of my comments of areas where we are investing, you should expect to continue to see that elevated. The second one being M&A—and I would say there is a good pipeline there, both of what we would call bolt-ons, even those are getting larger, as well as larger deals. And then we have buyback as an option. So we see within those areas that we could fully deploy our balance sheet.

Operator: Thank you. And our last question comes from the line of Analyst with UBS. Please proceed.

Analyst: Thank you. I wanted to come back to the high-voltage opportunity through 2035. Apologies if I missed this, but is the $1.5 billion opportunity relative to Hubbell Incorporated’s $400 million to $500 million transmission business today? I just want to get a sense of how to think about the growth opportunity.

Gerben W. Bakker: If you think about that math a little bit, it represents about 7,000 miles of high-voltage transmission—how we get to the $1.5 billion with our content—and that is over ten years, and who knows if that is longer or shorter, but if you use that as a basis, and then we are not the only participant in that. We certainly have a very good position in that market with our customers. If you add all those things up, we believe it can drive a point of growth above the high single digits that we provided for transmission/substations in the absence of it.

Analyst: That is helpful. And the RTO/ISO recommendation for 7,000 miles—I think there are a few hundred thousand miles of high-voltage transmission in the U.S. overall—so could that be more market opportunity if there is increasing content of 765 kV in the U.S., on top of that $1.5 billion, or is it too early to say?

Joe Capazzoli: I think the $1.5 billion was related to high-voltage transmission overall, so obviously there is a baseline market of transmission that is also growing strongly, as we said. So not sure what the question was driving that, but—

Analyst: No. That is clear. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our Q&A session. We will turn the call back to Daniel Innamorato for closing remarks.

Daniel Innamorato: Great. Thanks, operator. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. We will be around all day for follow-ups. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And this will conclude our conference. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.