Shares of industrial giant Eaton (ETN -0.90%) were on the rise Tuesday, up as much as 4.7% before settling into a 3.5% gain as of 12:25 p.m. ET.
Ireland-based Eaton is a diversified industrial giant, but extremely well positioned for the clean infrastructure build-out in the U.S. While it has a broad portfolio, the company's concentration in electrical components, systems, enclosures, and conduit and other products makes it a prime beneficiary of the clean energy transition and the move away from gas-powered to electrified vehicles.
This morning, the company reported a beat on revenue and earnings, while also raising its full-year guidance.
A solid beat on electrification megatrends
In the third quarter, Eaton saw its revenue rise 11%, or 9% on an organic basis, to $5.9 billion, with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) earnings of $2.22, beating the analyst estimates of $5.89 billion and $2.04, respectively. Meanwhile, non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings per share (EPS), stripping out the effects of noncash amortization and acquisition costs, was $2.47, beating estimates of $2.34. In addition to the third-quarter beat, management also raised its full-year organic growth rate projections by 50 basis points.
The future also looks bright for Eaton. Its backlog was up 18% relative to the last year and 4% relative to the prior quarter. While backlog doesn't necessarily translate into revenue and profits if the economy takes a downturn or some other exogenous event happens, it appears Eaton's customers aren't growing cautious about their need for electrification equipment.
In the press release, CEO Craig Arnold said:
We're proud to deliver another quarter of record results with continued growth in our backlog. To meet that demand, we are investing more than $1 billion of capital in manufacturing to support the growth driven by electrification, energy transition and digitalization. Given our strong performance and these capacity additions, we continue to look ahead with confidence in our ability to deliver on our growth and margin expansion outlook into 2024 and beyond.
That growth does look somewhat sustainable, as Eaton's largest segment, Electrical Americas, consisting of data center builds and utilities electrification, is its largest and highest-growth. EA made up about 44% of sales last quarter, while growing 19%, entirely organically. That's higher than the overall company's growth rate. Moreover, margins expanded in that key segment, with segment operating margin expanding 4.2 percentage points and operating profits surging 41%.
While the global electrification segment was more muted, at just 1% growth over the prior year, that segment is smaller, and may recover in time as global inflation comes down.
Eaton is a core industrial
Given the three major infrastructure bills passed by the Biden administration in 2021 and 2022, Eaton's Americas segment looks to have solid visibility into multiyear growth.
After today's surge, Eaton currently trades at 23.5 times 2023 earnings estimates and 21 times 2024 earnings estimates. Its dividend yield now stands at a respectable 1.75%.
While not screamingly cheap, that's not terribly expensive for such a high-quality large-cap. There are certainly worse ways to bet on the ongoing electrification infrastructure build-out in the U.S.