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DATE

Tuesday, May 5, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • President and Chief Executive Officer — Surendralal Karsanbhai
  • Chief Financial Officer — Michael J. Baughman

TAKEAWAYS

  • Adjusted segment EBITDA margin -- 27.6% in the quarter, above internal expectations, benefiting from favorable mix and offsetting inflation.
  • Adjusted EPS -- $1.54, rising 4% and near the top end of management guidance.
  • Underlying orders -- Up 5%, sustained by North America and India, with Software and Systems orders growing 18%.
  • Test and Measurement growth -- Increased 12% year over year, outpacing all other segments.
  • Ovation business -- Orders up 41%, attributed to higher demand in power verticals.
  • Annual contract value (ACV) for software -- Reached $1.64 billion, up 9% year over year, with full-year ACV growth projected at over 10%.
  • Backlog -- Stood at $8.2 billion, a 9% increase, enabling improved second-half sales visibility.
  • Fiscal 2026 sales guidance -- Updated to 4.5% GAAP sales growth and 3% underlying growth following Middle East disruptions.
  • Adjusted EPS full-year guide -- Raised bottom and midpoint; now expecting $6.45 to $6.55 per share.
  • Shareholder returns -- $542 million in share repurchases completed, with a total capital return target of $2.2 billion (including $1.2 billion in dividends and $1.0 billion in repurchases).
  • Middle East conflict impact -- Resulted in a one-point reduction in underlying sales growth and direct disruption to $50 million in revenue for the quarter, with another $100 million expected impact in the near term.
  • Backlog to book-to-bill ratio -- Book-to-bill reported at 1.07, indicating ongoing strong demand support.
  • Segment-specific performance -- Software and Systems underlying sales up 1% (impacted negatively by a 4.5% headwind from contract renewals), Intelligent Devices down 1% (with a two-point negative from the Middle East conflict), and Safety and Productivity up 2% (margin of 21.7%).
  • Regional trends -- Americas sales up 5%, with U.S. up 9%; Europe down 4%; Middle East and Africa down 5%; China revised to project mid-single-digit declines for fiscal 2026, largely due to chemical sector weakness.
  • Project funnel -- Record $11.2 billion funnel, with 85% of wins in growth verticals (power, life sciences, LNG), and major recent wins from Encore, NextDecade, and a top pharmaceutical company in Indiana.
  • Middle East operations update -- Emerson Electric's $1.2 billion regional business was disrupted, with manufacturing and field service returning to 75%-80% capacity; 47 customer sites were damaged but recovery and rebuild activities are generating $100 million in potential future opportunity.
  • Guidance for fiscal third quarter -- Sales growth expected at 5.5%, underlying sales up 5%, adjusted segment EBITDA margin at about 28%, and adjusted EPS between $1.65 and $1.70.
  • Free cash flow -- $694 million in the quarter (margin of 15%), with guidance for $3.5 billion to $3.6 billion for the full year and annual growth of approximately 10% at over 18% margin.
  • AI and digital solutions -- Active deployment of AI-driven software (such as Aspen Hybrid Models) for major clients, though management commented "it is a little early for it to translate into meaningful revenue opportunities."
  • Board of Directors -- Jennifer Neustadt (Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Apple, formerly at Meta) joining in August 2026, expanding the board to 11 members.

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RISKS

  • Middle East conflict caused a one-point reduction in both the quarter and full-year underlying sales; management expects a further $100 million of disruption before recovery opportunities offset losses.
  • China sales performance revised lower, now expected "to be down mid-single digits for the year," reflecting ongoing chemical industry contraction.
  • Software contract renewal cycles created a two-point headwind to second-quarter sales growth and 90-basis-point drag on adjusted segment EBITDA margin expansion, also reducing EPS growth by $0.09.
  • Regional activity in Europe was described as "soft, declining 4%," with continued weakness in automotive and muted trends in core energy and petrochemicals.

SUMMARY

Emerson Electric (EMR +2.56%) delivered elevated segment margins and a raised adjusted EPS outlook despite headwinds from the Middle East and China. Management updated guidance to reflect an expected $100 million near-term sales disruption from the Middle East, while reiterating robust backlog and 10%+ software ACV growth. Free cash flow guidance, key capital return plans, and segment-specific outlooks were adjusted to incorporate regional volatility, a challenging chemical sector in China, and persistent strength in North America. Adoption of AI-based solutions and digital grid management, although strategically highlighted, is not expected to have a material near-term impact on revenues. The upcoming board appointment and ongoing user group conferences underscore continued strategic investment and stakeholder engagement.

  • The updated $11.2 billion project funnel strengthens visibility into core verticals, particularly power and LNG, with high win rates fueling future sales.
  • Management cited that "Pricing has been very, very disciplined," enabling margins to be preserved despite inflationary headwinds and freight pressures.
  • Sequential and year-over-year growth trends are expected to remain mid-single digits through the second half, supporting incremental operating leverage above 40% excluding software contract renewal impacts.
  • Rebuild and restart activity in the Middle East is projected to extend across at least six quarters, contributing to future sales but not reversing this year's sales impact.
  • Segment mix benefits, favorable U.S. momentum, and a healthy MRO component (65% of mix) are projected to underpin margin guidance stability into year-end.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul): Aftermarket product and service activities supporting installed equipment, typically recurring and high-margin in industries such as oil, gas, and power generation.
  • ACV (Annual contract value): The annualized value of recurring software and service contracts, a primary indicator of growth in SaaS and industrial software businesses.
  • Book-to-bill: The ratio of incoming orders to fulfilled sales, indicating demand trends and backlog buildup.
  • Ovation: Emerson Electric's proprietary control system platform, focused primarily on power and process automation applications.
  • DeltaV: Emerson Electric's distributed control system, used industry-wide for process automation, particularly in complex, regulated environments.
  • IEBA tariffs: Industry/region-specific import/export tariffs referenced in financial guidance, affected by government trade and protectionist policies.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Surendralal Karsanbhai: Thank you, Doug. Good afternoon. I would like to begin by thanking our colleagues around the world. At this moment, it is important to highlight our teams in the Middle East who persevered in a challenging, at times dangerous, environment. All of our employees and families remain safe and we continue to serve our customer needs throughout the region. What defines our company is a high-performance culture based on deep respect for each other and an unwavering commitment to our customers. Led by Liam Hurley, our team in the Middle East brought this to life. Thank you. Please turn to Slide 3.

We are committed to ongoing Board refreshment, and today, we announced the newest member elected to our Board of Directors. Jennifer Neustadt is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Apple. Prior to joining Apple in January 2026, Jennifer served as Chief Legal Officer at Meta. She previously held multiple senior roles at the U.S. Department of State, White House Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Justice. Jennifer also spent 12 years in private practice advising technology, media, and financial services firms on litigation and regulatory matters. Her unique expertise in corporate governance, global business, and technology and innovation will be a tremendous addition to the Emerson Electric Co. Board.

Jennifer will officially join our Board on 08/03/2026. This will expand Emerson Electric Co.’s Board to 11 members. We are excited to have Jennifer join us. Please turn to Slide 4. End-market demand remains strong. Underlying orders grew 5% in the second quarter, led by Software and Systems, which saw robust investment in growth verticals and sustained momentum in North America and India. Emerson Electric Co.’s second quarter results reflect our ability to deliver in a dynamic environment. Underlying sales growth of 5% was below expectations due to a one-point impact from the Middle East conflict.

Test and Measurement continued to exceed expectations, up 12% year over year, and our Ovation business was up mid-teens, driven by the secular demand for power. Adjusted segment EBITDA margin of 27.6% exceeded expectations and we delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.54, near the top end of our guidance. As expected, annual contract value of our software grew 9% year over year and ended the quarter at $1.64 billion. We are updating our full-year guidance to reflect the impact of the conflict in the Middle East, and we now expect sales growth of 4.5% with underlying growth of 3%.

Adjusted segment EBITDA margin is still expected to be approximately 28%, and we are raising the bottom and midpoint of our adjusted EPS guide, now expecting $6.45 to $6.55 per share. We remain confident in our second-half plans for 2026 based on the orders momentum we are seeing and the visibility we have from our backlog, which is up 9% year over year. Throughout the first half, Emerson Electric Co. completed $542 million of share repurchases, and we remain committed to returning approximately $2.2 billion of capital to shareholders this fiscal year. Finally, I want to highlight the strength of our differentiated industrial software portfolio to address concerns in the broader software market regarding AI.

We are seeing healthy growth in ACV and expect to finish the year up 10% plus. Our software is based on decades of deep domain expertise and serves mission-critical applications in highly regulated industries. These applications require real-time compute and traceability of data, where being right 99.9% of the time is not good enough. Further, we are well positioned to benefit from embedding AI in our solutions. This represents a great opportunity for Emerson Electric Co. as we advance the journey to autonomous operations. Emerson Electric Co. recently deployed an AI-driven optimization solution for Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies.

Emerson Electric Co.’s Aspen Hybrid Models were integrated into Aramco’s existing refinery planning network to create one of the world’s largest multisite optimization models and give Aramco a scalable, robust tool for global refinery planning. Next week, AspenTech and NI will both host user conferences where Emerson Electric Co. will showcase our latest innovations which will help customers unlock greater levels of optimization and productivity across their operations. As Contech will hold, they are optimizing with over 1,100 customers from 49 countries, including keynotes from ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and Exelon. And NI Connect will feature keynote addresses from prominent customers, including NVIDIA and Alstom, with over 1,600 attendees from 38 countries. Please turn to Slide 5.

Underlying orders grew 5% in the second quarter, consistent with our expectations and supporting our second-half sales plan. North America and India continued to drive orders performance. Demand in Europe remained stable but soft, while China has started the year slower than expected. Software and Systems orders grew 18% year over year, with Test and Measurement and Control Systems and Software both up 18%. We saw sustained robust investment in power, with orders in our Ovation business up 41% and ACV in AspenTech’s Digital Grid Management Suite up 31%. We expect our growth verticals to be multiyear drivers of growth supported by secular tailwinds, and we are seeing significant capital being deployed in projects.

Emerson Electric Co. won approximately $450 million from our project funnel in the quarter, with 85% from our growth verticals led by power, life sciences, and LNG. The funnel grew to $11.2 billion, driven by new opportunities in power. Now I want to highlight a few key recent project wins. First, Emerson Electric Co. was selected by Encore, the largest electric delivery company in Texas, to enable the delivery of reliable power to more than 13 million residents. Encore will use AspenTech’s DGM to modernize and scale its distribution grid, preparing for increased demand driven by the growing population in Texas.

Encore will gain operational efficiencies and enhance grid management capabilities by leveraging a purpose-built OT platform for both transmission and distribution systems. Next, Emerson Electric Co. was chosen by NextDecade for the Train 4 and 5 expansion to the 12 million tons per annum in capacity. Emerson Electric Co. will supply instruments, valves, and analytical systems and was selected based upon our strong operational performance in LNG applications and our local presence and support. Third, a major pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Indiana chose Emerson Electric Co. to support the three-site production program for oral GLP-1s.

Ramping production quickly to meet substantial demand is critical for this project, and Emerson Electric Co. will provide our leading DeltaV control systems and software as well as our ability to execute complex projects. Lastly, Emerson Electric Co. will provide NI software and modular hardware to a leading aerospace company headquartered in South Texas for the production of the next-generation communications satellite. Emerson Electric Co. was chosen for its ability to provide improved test speed and measurement accuracy within a small footprint. Please turn to Slide 6. We have a $1.2 billion business in the Middle East, representing 7% of sales.

Emerson Electric Co. has an $8.5 billion installed base in the region, and over 1,400 employees across manufacturing, field service, and sales administration. The conflict presented a significant disruption in the quarter, causing a one-point impact to underlying sales. First and foremost, the safety of our employees and customers is our ultimate priority, and we took actions such as shutting down manufacturing for a period to protect our people. In March, our field service engineers also operated at less than 50% of pre-conflict levels. Emerson Electric Co. maintains a strong regionalized manufacturing strategy in the Middle East, but components for instruments and valves are imported into the region.

Additionally, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz caused significant disruptions to ocean, air, and ground logistics, which restricted our ability to import necessary components, instruments, and valves. Our customers experienced a varying degree of impact, with 47 customer sites identified as having been damaged in some capacity. We saw a slowdown of MRO and project activity in the quarter as some facilities restricted personnel. But we saw an improvement in activity in April. We are encouraged by the efforts of our employees and customers to drive business continuity. The situation remains challenging, and we expect it to impact the full-year 2026 underlying sales by one point.

Customer sites were largely operational by mid-April, although running at around 75% capacity due to their inability to move product out of the Strait of Hormuz. Emerson Electric Co.’s manufacturing facilities are both operational, and our field service engineers are now operating at 80% of pre-conflict levels. The dedication and service levels of our employees is deepening customer relationships, and we are working proactively with our customers to ensure we can meet their needs as they begin to work to repair damaged infrastructure. We have already seen rehabilitation activity, and we expect to have additional opportunities as customers continue to assess their facilities.

Overall, we estimate a future rebuild and restart opportunity of approximately $100 million, which will play out over several quarters. Although the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, our teams are implementing alternative routes and expect to see logistics continue to improve. While we are seeing increased freight expenses in the region, the cost impact to Emerson Electric Co. is manageable. Importantly, on-site project execution work is now progressing well at several key sites, and the outlook for projects remains strong. I want to reiterate how proud I am of our employees for their resiliency, and we continue to stand with our customers during this challenging situation. With that, I will now turn the call over to Michael J.

Baughman to discuss our financial results and guidance in more detail.

Michael J. Baughman: Thanks, Surendralal. Please turn to Slide 7 for a more in-depth look at our Q2 financial results. As a reminder, our first-half financial results are adversely affected by a software contract renewal dynamic that impacted Q2 sales growth by approximately two percentage points, adjusted segment EBITDA margin expansion by 90 basis points, and earnings per share growth by $0.09. Our Q2 results were also adversely affected by the Middle East conflict by approximately one point. Excluding these headwinds, Q2 underlying sales growth was approximately 3%. We continue to see strong growth at Test and Measurement, up 12% in the quarter, and Control Systems and Software, which was up 4% excluding the software renewal dynamic.

Price contributed 3.5 points to growth, as expected, and MRO was 65% of sales. Backlog ended the quarter at $8.2 billion, up 9% year over year, and our book-to-bill was 1.07. Adjusted segment EBITDA margin of 27% exceeded expectations and benefited from favorable segment and geographic mix. Price/cost and cost reductions more than offset inflation. Excluding the 90-basis-point impact from the software contract renewal dynamic, adjusted segment EBITDA margin was up 50 basis points. Adjusted earnings per share was $1.54, a 4% increase year over year, while Q2 cash flow came in at $694 million with a margin of 15%. We are on track for full-year cash flow growth of approximately 10% at greater than 18% margin.

Q2 was a difficult quarter due to the conflict in the Middle East, and I am proud of the operational performance we delivered. One moment, please. It appears we are having some technical difficulty. Thank you. You may now resume. Okay. Sorry about that. We had some technical difficulties. We are going to resume on Slide 9, where we will talk about underlying sales by region. The Americas were up 5%, with the U.S. up 9%. The pace of business in North America remained strong with significant activity across our growth verticals and resilient spend in MRO. As expected, Europe was soft, declining 4%.

The Middle East and Africa was down 5%, driven by the conflict in the region as customers were forced to curtail operations. As Surendralal mentioned in his comments, we have modeled the conflict in the Middle East as a one-point headwind to consolidated Emerson Electric Co. sales growth in 2026. During the first half of our fiscal year, we have seen better-than-expected growth in the U.S. We expect the strength in the U.S. to continue, and we now expect the U.S. to grow high single digits for the year. This incremental growth is offset by a slower-than-expected China, which we now expect to be down mid-single digits for the year.

Globally, we are seeing significant activity sustained in our growth verticals, which were up 22% in the quarter. Power was up 23%. We saw healthy investment in plant modernizations, lifetime extensions, and behind-the-meter generation for data centers. We also saw robust performance across the other growth verticals, particularly in aerospace and defense, and life sciences. Please turn to Slide 9 for details on the sales and margin performance for our three business groups. Software and Systems faced a 4.5% sales headwind from the software contract renewal dynamic and reported underlying sales growth of 1%. The growth was led by broad-based strength in Test and Measurement, which was up 12%.

We saw significant Software and Systems growth in power, life sciences, semiconductor, and aerospace and defense. Software and Systems margin of 29.2% decreased 250 basis points year over year, driven by the software contract renewal dynamic, which was a 300-basis-point drag. Intelligent Devices underlying sales were down 1%. The conflict in the Middle East impacted this growth by two points, offsetting strength in power and LNG. Intelligent Devices margin of 27.9% increased 80 basis points year over year from strong price/cost and cost reductions. Safety and Productivity was up 2% underlying, driven by electrical products and stable project activity in North America, while European markets remain soft.

Safety and Productivity’s margin of 21.7% was down 10 basis points year over year, driven by lower volume, offset by benefits from price and cost reduction. Please turn to Slide 10, where I will bridge Q2 adjusted EPS from the prior year. Excluding the $0.09 impact of software renewals, operations delivered $0.08 of incremental EPS in Q2. Of this, Software and Systems contributed $0.05, Intelligent Devices added $0.02, and Safety and Productivity contributed $0.01. Non-operating items added $0.07, primarily from FX benefits. Overall, adjusted EPS grew 4% year on year to $1.54. Please turn to Slide 11 for our 2026 underlying sales guidance by Business Group.

We are adjusting our full-year guidance for sales to reflect the Middle East conflict and now expect full-year underlying sales growth of approximately 3%. We expect Software and Systems to be up approximately 8% in Q3 and are increasing our full-year expectations to up 5% based on the strength of our growth verticals in this business and strength in the U.S. Test and Measurement is planned to grow mid-teens in Q3 and low teens for the full year, up from our prior expectations of high single-digit growth in 2026. The Control Systems and Software segment is expected to grow mid-single digits in Q3 and low single digits for the full year.

We continue to see robust adoption of our software and still expect ACV growth of 10% plus in 2026. Intelligent Devices is projected to grow 4% in Q3, and we are lowering our full-year expectations to approximately 2% driven by the conflict in the Middle East. Second-half growth in Intelligent Devices is supported by backlog phasing and the timing of product shipments, with strength in the U.S. and growth verticals offsetting a slower-than-expected China. Safety and Productivity is expected to grow 1% in Q3 and 2% for the full year. The North America market continues to recover; we are seeing sustained strength in electric utilities. However, automotive and European markets remain weak.

Overall, Emerson Electric Co. expects to grow approximately 5% in Q3 and 3% for the full year. Excluding the impact of software contract renewals, Emerson Electric Co.’s growth rate is expected to be 4% for the full year. Please turn to Slide 12 for details on our Q3 and full-year 2026 guidance. Before going through the details, I would like to highlight a few important assumptions embedded in our guidance. Our guidance considers a gradual resumption of activity in the Middle East and assumes the impact of the conflict remains in the region.

Additionally, we expect a net neutral impact from the removal of IEBA tariffs, as this benefit is offset by increases in Section 1 and 232 tariffs as well as freight costs. Finally, our earnings and cash flow guidance excludes any benefit of potential tariff refunds. For the full year, we expect FX to be a tailwind to sales of approximately 1.5% and GAAP sales to increase approximately 4.5%. We still expect adjusted segment EBITDA margin of approximately 28% and free cash flow of $3.5 billion to $3.6 billion. We are raising the bottom and midpoint of our 2026 adjusted EPS guide and now expect $6.45 to $6.55.

We still expect to return approximately $2.2 billion to shareholders through $1.2 billion in dividends and $1.0 billion of share repurchase, of which we completed $542 million in the first half. Moving to the third quarter, sales growth is expected to be approximately 5.5% with underlying sales growth of approximately 5%. We expect adjusted segment EBITDA margin of approximately 28% and adjusted EPS of $1.65 to $1.70. With that, I would like to turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.

Operator: We will now open the call for questions. Thank you. Our first question is from Scott Davis with Melius Research.

Scott Davis: Hey, good afternoon, guys. Hi, Scott. A couple just points to clarify. I thought that detail you gave in the call was pretty thorough, but so we lost about a point in the Middle East, and it sounds like you expect to get about a half of that point back. Is that correct? Is the rest lost revenues, or is there still optionality or potential to regain the remainder of those revenues?

Michael J. Baughman: No. I think, Scott, we have seen the disruption in the Middle East, and as we mentioned on the call, there was about $50 million in the quarter. As we look out, we are expecting about another $100 million of disruption. What we see is encouraging with the supply chain improving, but it is still a very uncertain situation and we have six months left here for the year, and capacity right now is running at about 75%. We mentioned that there is some opportunity out there for rebuild and restart, and that has started, but that is going to take, we think, six quarters to unfold here, and we will see how that goes.

But I would say do not think there are revenues that are lost, and in fact, over the longer term, there should be opportunity. In this next six months, based on what we saw in the quarter and based on what we see on the ground today, we felt it was prudent to bake that in and take the full-year guide down by a point at the top line.

Scott Davis: Okay. That is helpful. And then I do not think you mentioned why China was weak in the prepared remarks, but down 9% was pretty material. Is that chemical-related, or are there other dynamics?

Surendralal Karsanbhai: Yes, Scott. You hit the nail on the head. Our exposure to the chemical industry in China, an industry that continues to be over-capacitized and very weak in terms of spend, has adversely impacted us now for a few quarters, and that continued through the second quarter of the year, which then led us to assess China for the year more in the negative mid-single digits versus the low single digits as we had originally thought three months ago.

Operator: Our next question is from Andrew Obin with Bank of America.

Andrew Obin: Yes, just to follow up on the rebuild question. Was I correct that the value of the rebuild is $100 million?

Surendralal Karsanbhai: That is what we have assessed to date. That is based on pace of quotations and orders that we have received already. Now obviously, that is based on the 47 sites that have been impacted across the region. That number could change over time. And that is also based on what we assess restart procedures will entail for MRO activities. So that is all that we have today, Andrew.

Andrew Obin: I guess the question I have, if I am just sort of thinking about damage to Ras Laffan and your content, you know, just that gets me a much higher number. So what is wrong with that kind of analysis? And then, clearly, you guys are on the ground, you know what is happening. It just seems the number should be order of magnitude higher given the amount of damage that we have been reading about.

Michael J. Baughman: So, Andrew, I think the way the $100 million we have estimated is on the damage created to the installed base on the 47 sites impacted. Now, if you are talking about the LNG capacity that came online to be rebuilt, that is a much bigger opportunity. We have not really scoped that. What we are scoping for you is the near term disruptions we have seen in customers, and as they try to restart operations, what we call our lifecycle services businesses—we quantified that over the next quarters to be in the tune of $100 million.

But to your point, the capacity that was taken offline, as that comes online, that is a much bigger number, but we are not in a position to quantify it at this point.

Andrew Obin: Okay. That makes perfect sense. Thank you so much. And then just another question, sort of more fundamental question. Has the dial changed post–Middle East as to where downstream CapEx goes or chemical CapEx goes? I think a lot of capacity was reliant on Middle East feedstocks—huge capital costs, low cost of capital. But as we have learned during COVID that efficiency versus reliability are not necessarily the same things. Has thinking changed about where facilities go going forward and where this capacity will be domiciled going forward? I am just thinking, right, because I do not think chemicals are particularly competitive in North America, but any glimmer of hope of any of that capacity coming to North America?

Sorry for a long question.

Surendralal Karsanbhai: It is a good question, Andrew, and it is certainly worth thinking about the future balancing of capacity in the chemical industry. As you know, at least on the bulk chemical side, that has been largely dominated by China, with Germany and the United States having smaller components. As you move towards the more specialized chemicals, the Europeans and the Americans have had more of a position. That is going to take some time. Right now, I would say the first step is going to be to find alternatives in the Middle East for the Strait of Hormuz.

A lot of pipeline quotation activity is ongoing across Saudi Arabia and a few of the other countries to bypass what likely will be a concerning pinch point from here on forward, and so that activity has started. But certainly, I think as things start to settle, producers will eventually balance capacity needs across the world and regionalize their production.

Operator: Our next question is from Andrew Alec Kaplowitz with Citigroup.

Andrew Alec Kaplowitz: Good afternoon, everyone.

Surendralal Karsanbhai: Hi, Andy. Maybe just a little more color on the near-term demand environment and orders moving forward. I know obviously you have more difficult order comparisons from here, but as you said, you are getting good momentum from the growth verticals, particularly in power and Test and Measurement. Can you sustain that mid-single-digit order growth rate in this environment? Did you see any difference in order cadence between January and April? A couple of your industrial peers called out a weak start to the calendar year outside of the Middle East.

Surendralal Karsanbhai: Yes. No, we felt it was a very strong quarter outside of the Middle East. It was driven for us, as we remarked in the written comments, by the United States and by India, which led. And we saw broad growth across all of the growth verticals, with the lowest one being probably semiconductors in the mid-teens, and all of them in terms of orders grew above that. We feel really good in terms of that resiliency. Of course, the Middle East was much softer than expected in the quarter. We expect that to rebound.

We have already seen in April that was encouraging in the Middle East, particularly as it relates to MRO activity, and we will see how the projects ultimately pan out. But I think mid-single-digit orders are sustainable for us as we navigate through the remainder of 2026. At this point in time, we feel very confident that with our backlog support, we have the second half well sized, and then with this momentum in orders, we will be setting us up for 2027.

Andrew Alec Kaplowitz: Helpful, Surendralal. And as you said, your expectations for margins, really margin incrementals, have been drifting up a bit given the lower sales forecast, and that is despite, I think, you absorbing more inflation with price. Maybe talk about what you are doing to offset the inflation. Are you baking in more, for instance, memory chip inflation, and confidence level that you can continue to offset inflation headwinds even on lower growth?

Michael J. Baughman: Pricing has been very, very disciplined. Our cost reductions and, frankly, favorable mix in some of the sales we have executed has helped, but ongoing productivity actions and supply chain mitigation actions to offset inflation are really what is driving the margins.

Operator: Our next question is from Julian Mitchell with Barclays.

Julian Mitchell: Hi, good afternoon. Just wanted to understand quickly how you thought about the high-level guidance moving parts. You have taken a little bit down on the revenue line; the EPS dollar guide low end, though, has moved up, with an unchanged segment margin guide. So is what is happening really a narrower corporate cost and then perhaps some rounding in the margins? Is that what is helping? And on the mix front—you have mentioned it a couple of times—help us understand how you see that mix impact playing out over the balance of the year, please.

Michael J. Baughman: Yes, Julian. From a margin perspective, you are correct when you say it is in the roundings. It has not fundamentally changed. If you think about it, our view—other than the $50 million and the approximate $100 million in the back half of the year in a region that really has lower margins—our full-year view has not changed. The mix will improve a little, but as we have said, a lot of this growth in the second half is in backlog; it is projects. So there will be a volume uptick with some project and some mix going forward, and it all nets out. We feel very comfortable holding the 28% for the year.

Julian Mitchell: That is helpful. Thank you. And then as we are looking at the balance of the year, I think you have in Q3 and Q4 a mid-single-digit sequential revenue increase dialed in and kind of high-30s operating leverage. Is that a fair placeholder for both quarters? Anything we should bear in mind in one versus the other? And on the ACV front, I think you are embedding an acceleration in the back half. Anything to call out there?

Michael J. Baughman: I think from a leverage perspective, the numbers are affected by that software contract renewal dynamic and the effects there. But if you take that out, we will be over 40% leverage on the full year, which certainly means some acceleration in the back half. From an ACV perspective, yes, we continue to reiterate the 10% plus for the full year. We had a good quarter, and we continue to think that the ACV growth of 10% plus is the right number for us. And I think you said sequential growth mid-single digits. That is correct. And also year-over-year growth is mid-single digits. So I think that is an important addition to your statement.

Sequential growth mid-single digit is consistent with year-over-year mid-single digit, and if you do the math, the leverage will be a tad better than the 30s you stated for the second half. Yeah.

Operator: Our next question is from Jeffrey Todd Sprague with Vertical Research.

Jeffrey Todd Sprague: Hey, thank you. Good morning, everyone. Just wanted to get a broader sense of the total global ramifications of this. The nature of my question, right, is the comment of the war stays contained in the Middle East, but the economic impacts are not contained. We have Europe becoming less competitive from an energy cost standpoint, maybe China not having the cheaper feedstocks it needs for its chemical industry. So when you are kind of framing this—and I know none of us have a crystal ball—how are you thinking about those second-order impacts? Are you trying to dial those in any way?

Surendralal Karsanbhai: It is a very good question, and certainly, Jeff, we have to create a framework in which to set expectations for the second half and performance for the second half of our fiscal year, of course within a time frame of just six months. We have to work within to mitigate potential impact. That framework that we built has a very important assumption, as you stated, that this conflict essentially is constrained to the Arabian Peninsula, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf area. There are certainly economic downstream impacts that are already being felt—certainly feedstock pricing and supply. We have electricity curtailments in parts of Southeast Asia. We have accounted for as much of that as we know today.

But very honestly, we have not assumed a significant deterioration in economic conditions or growth, for example, in India or any of the countries in Southeast Asia, that, in a much broader, deeper conflict, would significantly be impacted.

Jeffrey Todd Sprague: Right. Understood. And then maybe just a little—if we did not have this war going on, there would probably be a lot more Test and Measurement questions. Maybe just come back to Test and Measurement. The raw numbers you shared with us—growth rates—sound quite encouraging. Anything beneath the surface on verticals or distribution channel that you can share that sheds a little light on the demand profile here?

Michael J. Baughman: Yes. I mean, I think the momentum in Test and Measurement is clearly led by semis and aerospace and defense. Both end markets are doing very, very well for us, and frankly, we expect continued momentum across both those sectors, whether it is new space, defense spending, and then certainly on the semi side, the RF and mixed-signal investments that are happening, data center investments. I think there is no surprise there. The weakest segment we have within our Test and Measurement business is the transportation segment, the automotive segment. We believe we have kind of hit bottom, and that will start growing low single digits again.

Most of that business is in Europe, and our portfolio business has been resilient. We had a nice run as we came through the recovery mode, but that has stabilized in the mid-single-digit type growth rate. So, on a cumulative fashion, the double-digit for Test and Measurement is sustainable for the next couple of quarters, and we expect that to continue into 2027.

Operator: Our next question is from Deane Michael Dray with RBC Capital.

Deane Michael Dray: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone.

Surendralal Karsanbhai: Hello, Deane.

Deane Michael Dray: I would love to do a similar run-through on power—bigger number there. I think you said up 23%. Could you just talk about the visibility? You called out plant modernization but also behind the meter. Does that stand, and what is the outlook for the balance of the year?

Michael J. Baughman: From a power perspective, the momentum in terms of the project funnel—which is a pretty big funnel and that is made up of both modernizations as well as greenfield—and we are starting to see greenfield. There was some greenfield in Q2. We expect bigger greenfield activity in the half. And a similar comment on behind the meter. We saw some behind-the-meter opportunities in Q2, but we expect more to happen in the second half and into 2027. So broad spread for the Ovation business. Obviously that flows through to our valves and instruments business, which is doing very well.

And also we called out our Digital Grid Management business; on the transmission and distribution side, a lot of investment is happening in the T&D space. So broad-based strength in power, certainly led by North America, which is our strongest market, but we are seeing momentum in Latin America, particularly Mexico, good activity in China, rest of Asia, and some activity in Europe.

Deane Michael Dray: Good to hear there. And then if we just spotlight MRO for a moment—you called out it was 65% of your mix. In previous oil spikes—you get $100 oil—you often see the refiners just turn on the cash register, run 24/7, and do as much MRO project activity as possible, right up until regulatory limits. Have you seen any delays there? Do you expect anything like that this time?

Surendralal Karsanbhai: No, Deane. As a matter of fact, we tend to see when you run things that hard, the opportunities for MRO actually increase for us, particularly in stringent applications of high pressure, high temperatures. To date, we have not seen any change in trends that would alarm us negatively on MRO anywhere in the globe, other than what we highlighted related to sites in the Middle East.

Operator: Our next question is from Andrew Buscaglia with BNP Paribas.

Andrew Buscaglia: Hi, good afternoon, everyone.

Surendralal Karsanbhai: Hi.

Andrew Buscaglia: Obviously very topical throughout the quarter and throughout the year this year has been AI and software. It sounds like you have these new products out. It sounds like adoption is going well. Can you give us an update on anything you have learned intra-quarter on that front? And then I am curious on the outlook—how impactful do you see these products contributing to growth going forward, even as soon as this year? Maybe you can comment on that, please.

Michael J. Baughman: Yes. A lot of customer interest, not only on the NI side, but certainly the capabilities we have launched on Ovation, DeltaV, as well as AspenTech. It will be a very interesting users group event where you are going to see a lot more customer input as it relates to pace of adoption for both NI and AspenTech, so we will get to learn that in a couple of weeks. We do believe that it is a differentiator for us and we are seeing a lot of activity, particularly in the Ovation business, in terms of customer dialogue and a lot of quotes around AI.

I would say it is a little early for it to translate into meaningful revenue opportunities. We have been very thoughtful on pricing and making sure that we can extract value and tiering the product suites where we can capture the value, with tiering on the higher-tier products which will have the AI functionality. Time will tell. There is certainly a lot of customer interest, but we do not have meaningful impact on revenue as we sit here today. As we progress into 2027 and beyond, I think it will be a huge differentiator for us.

Andrew Buscaglia: Fair enough. And, sticking with software, I wanted to check on your margin cadence through the back half of the year. There is a little bit of noise starting the first half or second half, but can you comment on what is behind the implied guidance for the back half of the year for that segment and the puts and takes there?

Michael J. Baughman: This is Control Systems and Software, or Control Systems and Software, just to clarify?

Andrew Buscaglia: Yeah, Software and Systems.

Michael J. Baughman: It should be up a little bit in the second half versus where it was in the first half, but pretty consistent through the year. There is some project execution there that plays against some of the mix favorability that we will see in the business mix that comes through.

Operator: Our next question is from Joseph John O’Dea with Wells Fargo.

Joseph John O’Dea: Hi, good afternoon. You made a comment about seeing significant capital deployed in projects, and I would imagine that some of this is a continuation of what you are seeing in growth verticals—so you talk about power and LNG and life sciences. But I am curious if you are seeing an acceleration as well as a broadening out at all. A lot of what we have heard in terms of industrial end-market activity is companies seeing a continuation of spend on areas like productivity, but not so much a broadening out on the capital project side. Are you seeing some broadening out or acceleration of this?

Surendralal Karsanbhai: We continue to see consistency in the funnel. As you know, Joe, we look at that on a two- to three-year basis. It grew to $11.2 billion, and the growth has come entirely from inside of our growth verticals. Power really drove the growth in the funnel, but the win rate and the project deliveries continue to be consistent within the growth verticals that we identified. We have not seen tremendous broadening beyond that. It continues to be those five core verticals that are driving not just the activity, but also feeding of the funnel.

Michael J. Baughman: Yes, you said it. The new capital formation in our five growth sectors of power, LNG, life sciences, semiconductors, and aerospace and defense continues to accelerate. Every meeting we have with our businesses points to more opportunities in the funnel being added across these five verticals. The core markets in energy, refining, and petrochemical—it depends on the geography there—show stable or muted activity, but as it relates to the growth verticals, there is no slowing down. In fact, we see accelerating additions of opportunities to the funnel.

Joseph John O’Dea: And then just touching on the margin strength in Intelligent Devices in the quarter—we saw it in both Sensors and Final Control. If you can unpack that a little bit more with respect to mix and cost actions during the quarter. You do expect a step-up in the growth rate in the back half. Curious the degree to which volume then helps those margins sequentially and how mix is expected to play out as you move forward in the year.

Michael J. Baughman: As we talked about, it was the strong price/cost and cost reductions. I will say we got a little bit of benefit in the quarter from not having the IEPA tariffs, and obviously as we move forward, that benefit will, as we talked about, be offset by other tariffs and some freight cost pressure. As we move into the second half, the margins will have, as you suspected, offsetting factors of volume being beneficial with some mix pressure as projects get delivered. I expect to see that group improve margins year over year, as they have been doing, and continue to perform very well. But there will be some pressures that should offset net-net.

Year over year, we will see improvement in the operating margins there.

Operator: Our next question is from Analyst.

Analyst: Yes, thanks. Good afternoon. I wondered if you could just touch on a couple of things for me. Free cash flow came in a little light of where I thought it might end up being, so I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that and how we might think about the phasing through the back half of the year. And then secondly, just on Intelligent Devices, I think even ex–the Middle East, the business came in a little light of your guide. Is the primary driver of that weakness in China and Europe? If you could unpick that a little bit for us, that would be really helpful.

Michael J. Baughman: Sure, Alex. In terms of cash flow, the first half was certainly affected by the interest from the Aspen buy-in that was primarily in the back half of last year, and so we will lap that out as we move forward. We also had some tax payment timing that was a negative in the first half. We also had a buildup of some working capital as we get ready for the second half of the year. If you are looking at the prior year, our cash flow that year was far more ratable than it historically has been. This year will look a little more like we have looked in the two years prior to last year.

On Intelligent Devices this period versus expectation, yes, there was some softness in China and Europe as you suspected.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference. We thank you again for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.