ITT - Earnings Call - Q3 2025

Executive Summary

• ITT delivered a clean beat and another step-up in profitability: revenue $999.1M (+12.9% y/y, +2.7% q/q) and adjusted EPS $1.78 (+21% y/y), with adjusted operating margin up 20 bps to 18.5%. Versus S&P Global consensus, ITT beat on revenue ($999.1M vs $974.3M*) and EPS ($1.78 vs $1.67*); EBITDA also topped ($218.8M vs $214.4M*) (12 estimates) (Values retrieved from S&P Global).
• Operating cash flow and free cash flow were standouts: CFO $173.9M and FCF $154.1M (15.4% margin) in Q3; YTD FCF $368.0M (+46% y/y).
• Guidance raised again: FY25 GAAP EPS to $6.16–$6.22 (from $5.95–$6.15) and adjusted EPS to $6.62–$6.68 (from $6.35–$6.55); total revenue growth nudged to 6–7%; FCF now $500M (~13% margin).
• Catalysts: clear beat on EPS/revenue/EBITDA*, margin resilience (ex-M&A), and another FY guide raise. Medium-term narrative centers on robust ~$2B backlog entering Q4/2026, project momentum in IP, and pricing actions in CCT.

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Strong beat and quality growth: adjusted EPS rose 21% y/y to $1.78 on 6% organic revenue growth and 20 bps adjusted margin expansion to 18.5%. CEO: “Adjusted operating income grew nearly twice the rate of organic sales growth thanks to productivity actions and pricing”.
• Cash conversion accelerated: Q3 FCF $154.1M (+77% y/y), FCF margin 15.4%; YTD FCF $368.0M (+46%), supporting debt paydown and investments.
• Segment execution and accretive M&A: IP margin ~21.4% (+30 bps y/y), Svanehøj >30% revenue growth and >20% EBITDA; CCT +25% total revenue (kSARIA), aero up double-digits, defense growing; MT above 20% margin for the second consecutive quarter (KONI strength).

What Went Wrong

• Reported operating income/margin down y/y due to prior-year gain on WAM sale: operating income $179.8M (-13.8% y/y) and margin 18.0% (-560 bps), though adjusted OI +13.8% and adjusted margin +20 bps.
• Orders softness headline in the quarter: total organic orders down 3.6% y/y (IP -9.9%) with phasing vs tough PY project comps; management still expects FY book-to-bill >1 and EOY backlog higher.
• CCT reported margin pressure from temporary acquisition amortization (down 60 bps y/y to 17.8%); management expects amortization headwind to end in Q4 and negotiations with Boeing to support 2026 margins.

Transcript

Speaker 3

Welcome to ITT's 2025 third quarter conference call. Today is Wednesday, October 29, 2025. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay beginning at 12:00 P.M. Eastern Time. At this time all participants have been placed in listen-only mode and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 11 on your touchtone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing 11. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Mark Macaluso, Vice President, Investor Relations and Global Communications. You may begin.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Gigi, and good morning. Joining me in Stamford today are Luca Savi, ITT's Chief Executive Officer and President, and Emmanuel Caprais, Chief Financial Officer. Today's call will cover ITT's financial results for the three-month period ended September 27, 2025.

Speaker 0

Please refer to Slide 2 of the.

Speaker 4

Presentation available on our website, where we note that today's comments will include forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations. Actual results may differ materially due to several risks and uncertainties, including those described in our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other recent SEC filings. Except where otherwise noted, the third quarter results we present this morning will be compared to the third quarter of 2024 and include certain non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliation of such measures to the most comparable GAAP figures are detailed in our press release and in the appendix of our presentation, both of which are available on our website. With that, it's now my pleasure to.

Speaker 0

Turn the call over to Luca.

Speaker 4

Will begin on slide three.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mark, and good morning. I'd like to begin today with a sincere thank you to our ITTers. Our teams around the world deliver strong results for yet another quarter. For all your hard work, my heartfelt thanks, especially to our team in Brazil. After the plant was hit by a very destructive storm during the quarter, production was back up and running in less than 48 hours. To Rodrigo, the entire Salto team, and Nico, thank you for your dedication and commitment to our customers and to ITT. Now to our results. ITT's third quarter was another step towards our 2030 target with organic growth and margin expansion compounded with M&A. Let me share some highlights. In Q3, we delivered nearly $1 billion of total orders for the third consecutive quarter, up 3%, bolstered once again by the strong order intake from Casoria and Svanehøj acquisitions.

We grew revenue 13% total and 6% organic with all segments contributing to $999 million. Rest assured, we were on the phone after quarter end with the plant that left $3 million bucks on the shop floor. Operating income grew nearly twice the organic sales growth rate, and operating margin expanded over 100 basis points excluding M&A. Adjusted EPS grew 21%, and we grew free cash flow 46% to $368 million year to date and now expect to be at the high end of our previous range at $500 million for the full year. Furthermore, free cash flow margin in the quarter was over 15%, surpassing the high end of our 2030 target communicated in May. We also continue to fund innovations like Vidar, our game-changing industrial motor. Vidar is installed with three large energy companies in North America, and now we've begun shipping Goulds pumps with Vidar motors.

As Stan, our global head of engineering, remarked, the best just got better. Now let's get into the details on revenue. We saw broad-based organic growth in Industrial Process and Connect and Control as we continue to convert the robust backlog. IP grew 11% organically, mainly due to projects which grew over 50%, including another strong top-line performance from Svanehøj, growing 34%. In August, I was with the Svanehøj team reviewing the testing of our new deep well cargo and high-pressure fuel pumps, and I saw firsthand the shop floor full of beautiful, shiny new pumps ready to ship.

CCT delivered 25% total growth both by the Casoria acquisition or 6% organically as defense momentum continues and aerospace demand ramps, and in MT friction OE grew 4% organically, outperforming global auto production once again led by an outstanding performance in China where we keep on winning with BYD, Great Wall, Geely, and others. On profitability, we expanded margin 110 basis points excluding M&A. IP grew margins 70 basis points to nearly 22%, and Svanehøj also improved its profitability with EBITDA exceeding 20% this quarter. MT grew margin to 110 basis points driven by over 300 basis points of productivity savings offsetting 120 basis points of inflation. CCT grew margin 270 basis points excluding Casoria dilution. The team continues to make progress on key customer price negotiations, which we expect to finalize now in Q4.

On cash, a robust performance which allows us to pay down debt and lower our interest expense whilst funding investments for Vidar and other game-changing innovations including the Geopad. The Geopad is currently being tested on a dedicated platform with a large European OEM. More to come on this in the coming quarters. Given our strong performance to date, ramping contributions from acquisitions, and the lower effective tax rate, we are raising our full year adjusted EPS outlook. Notably, the low end of our revised EPS guidance range is now above the previous high end. This represents 13% growth versus prior year or 16% if we exclude the lost earnings from our 2024 Wolverine divestiture. This is a testament to our team's ability to deliver for our customers and our shareholders day in and day out, no matter the environment. Emmanuel Caprais will talk more about our revised guidance shortly.

Now let's turn to Slide 4 to talk about ITT's orders and revenue growth. As you recall from our capital markets day in May, we demonstrated with numerous examples across all value centers how ITT's differentiation is driving our share gains. Let's spend a few moments to discuss this further, beginning with orders year to date. Over the last three years, orders have grown 19% to over $3 billion with strength across all segments and in attractive growing end markets including Defense and Aero, Rail, and the Energy Transition in Motion Technologies. The Friction team once again continued to outperform in the market, and in Q3 alone we won 10 high performance platforms and more than 40 electrified awards with leading OEMs in China, Europe, and North America. Our market share in China has grown from 31% last year to above 34% today.

At the same time, Carnie expanded its leadership position on global high speed rail and defense platforms. In Connect and Control, orders were up 27% and 6% organic on the strength in aerospace and defense, and our acquisitions continue to perform ahead of expectations with strong orders growth in 2025 and a book to bill comfortably above 1. Tesare grew orders 58% year to date with a book to bill of 1.2 thanks to awards on coveted defense platforms. These included content on a vertical launch system with a brand new customer. We were at Casoria headquarters in Hudson, New Hampshire together with the ITT board earlier this month. We shared with our board how built in process quality drives Casoria's differentiation. Thanks Mike and Tim for your accomplishments. I'm incredibly positive about the growth we will drive together in the years to come.

On Svanehøj, Soren and team won orders of over $250 million year to date. These represent 59% growth versus the prior year and the book to bill of 1.6 for the year. Even with over 30% revenue growth, Svanehøj expects to end 2025 with a book to bill of nearly 1.3. This quarter Svanehøj secured a first of its kind award to enter the U.S. land based terminal market, which will involve the largest LPG pump in company history, capable also of handling ammonia. Notably, the Goulds Pumps team, which has strong connections on terminals in the U.S., introduced Svanehøj to this customer. Well done Johnny and team for capturing this opportunity with the major U.S. EPC. Another strong year with ITT, all in our year to date book to bill of 1.08 resulting in an ending backlog of nearly $2 billion, up 13% compared to prior year end.

For the full year, we continue to expect a book to bill above one, which puts us in a strong position to grow again in 2026. Speaking of growth, a main driver of our revenue growth has been our flawless execution on pump projects. One example of this is our Goulds Pumps team in Saudi Arabia. This team's performance secured a node, a win rate of more than 95% in the last years. In mid November I will be in Daman with Bartek, Hamdi, and the local team to recognize this outstanding accomplishment and to join the ribbon cutting of phase two of our $24 million expansion to announce our manufacturing and testing capabilities to meet our future growth. The last thing I would like to highlight on growth is that 2/3 of its revenue growth since 2023 came from volume and just 1/3 came from price.

Clearly we are gaining share now. Let me turn the call over to Emmanuel to discuss our Q3 results in more detail.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Luca, and good morning. As you can see, ITT Inc. delivered another strong performance in the third quarter. We saw a step up in growth with organic revenue, EPS, and free cash flow well ahead of our initial expectations. Let's talk briefly about some of the many highlights on revenue. All segments contributed to the performance, growing 13% in total and 6% organically. Industrial Process once again led the way with 11% organic growth on the strength of projects business, which grew over 50%. From an orders perspective, for the second consecutive quarter, we saw growth in every short cycle product category, most notably in parts and valves. CCT grew 6% organically with strength in both aerospace, which grew 18%, and defense, which grew 4% in total. CCT grew 25% in Motion Technologies. KONI grew 12% driven by share gains in rail friction.

OE outperformed global auto production by 360 basis points, growing 4%, led by China and Europe. On profitability, we grew operating margin 20 basis points to 18.5% on higher volumes, pricing actions including related to tariffs, and continued operational improvements. This more than offset the impact of inflation and temporary acquisition amortization from Casoria, which will end in Q4. At the segment level, CCT margin expanded 270 basis points versus prior year, excluding the dilution from Casoria. IP margin expanded 70 basis points to nearly 22%. In MT, Jeroen and the KONI team again delivered outstanding profitability, which is driving MT above 20% margin for the second consecutive quarter. The profitable growth drove adjusted EPS to $1.78, up 21% year over year.

In addition to our strong operational performance, we also realized benefits from a lower share count thanks to $500 million of share repurchases year to date and less unfavorable foreign currency impact, which more than offsets higher interest expense. Finally, on cash, an incredible performance by our teams to drive strong cash collections and negotiate customer advances while demonstrating early progress in managing inventory. These actions pushed free cash flow margin in the quarter to over 15% while still funding further strategic capex towards innovation and productivity. To ensure our performance continues, we're driving improvements in working capital, especially in MT, and leveraging the learnings from Svanehøj, whose working capital as a percentage of sales is now just 5% all in. As you can see, a high-quality performance across the board. Let's quickly turn to Slide 6.

The key takeaway here, similar to what I conveyed in Q2, is that the strong operational performance across our businesses, contributions from our acquisitions, and a lower share count enabled us to grow EPS over 21%. We also realized a lower effective tax rate than planned. The earnings accretion from our acquisitions is increasing and will continue to do so as we lap the remaining temporary amortization impacts from Casoria. We're also making strong operational improvements with 500 basis points improvement in Svanehøj's EBITDA margin this quarter. Just to step back for a moment, even if you remove the $0.07 impact from the favorable FX, tax, and other items, we still grew EPS over 16%. Now let's move to Slide 7 to discuss our revised 2025 guidance.

After a strong third quarter performance during which we grew revenue, expanded margin, and generated a ton of cash, we are raising our total revenue and EPS outlook for 2025 and bumping our free cash flow outlook to the upper end of our previous range. On revenue, our total growth is now expected to be slightly higher at 6% to 7%, while organic revenue remains within our prior range of 3% to 5%. We expect continued growth in the project business in IP. Given the strong backlog, firm demand in aerospace and defense, and outperformance in friction OE and rail, our margin outlook remains strong. We expect to drive continued productivity in legacy businesses and significant margin expansion in our acquisitions as well as considerable pricing, particularly in CCT. Excluding M&A, we expect margin expansion to be more than 100 basis points for the year.

On EPS, we're raising the midpoint of our guidance by $0.20 to $6.65, another step change in our EPS outlook for the year with a $0.27 increase at the low end and a 13% improvement at the high end. This is due to improved productivity, profitable growth from our acquisitions, and a slightly lower effective tax rate now expected to be 21.5% for the year. Finally, on cash, we now expect to reach the high end of our guidance, delivering $500 million in free cash flow and a 13% margin this year. This reflects several years of structural improvement and disciplined execution, from weekly receivable calls to a more granular approach to customer payment practices, ensuring ITT is top of mind with them given the differentiated value we provide.

These actions are driving consistently improving results, and we see further opportunities to strengthen cash performance, such as optimizing our advanced space payments for large projects. With just one quarter left in 2025, let's spend a minute discussing our implied outlook for Q4. We expect high single digit growth in revenue, or mid single digit growth on an organic basis, led by strong performances in Connect and Control Technologies and Industrial Process. Friction should once again outperform global auto production, while strength in rail should continue. We expect operating margin to be up approximately 130 basis points, led by strong margin expansion at IP and CCT. Pricing and productivity should more than offset the remaining temporary amortization from Casoria, and MT should once again hit the 20% mark in Q4.

In terms of other forecast items, we expect total corporate costs to be slightly up compared to Q3, due primarily to higher growth investments in Vidar. This should collectively drive EPS growth just below 20% for the quarter. Let me now turn the call back to Luca. Thanks, Emmanuel.

Speaker 1

A few points before Q and A. Q3 was all about growth for ITT Inc. and another step on the journey towards our 2030 targets. The organic value creation through growth and margin expansion continued, and as you saw, we are compounding this growth with M&A as our acquisitions perform well ahead of expectations. Cash continues to ramp towards an expected half billion dollars of free cash flow this year, with a free cash flow margin this quarter of more than 15%. We made another step change improvement in our full year EPS outlook, raising the midpoint by another $0.20. As you can see, ITT Inc.'s growth is strong and it is here to stay. Before opening the line for Q and A, there is one more heartfelt thank you I would love to give. Mark Macaluso, our Head of Investor Relations and Global Communications, will be leaving ITT Inc.

later this week to pursue another opportunity. Dear Mark, thank you. You had a real and great impact on ITT Inc., and in ITT Inc., you elevated how we talked about our businesses. You challenged us and our thinking. You made us more efficient, you made us much, much better. You worked hard, played hard, and we had fun. Thank you. I learned a heck of a lot from you and I would also have liked to keep on learning. One thing you didn't deliver though, was to find an earnings call operator with a stronger Italian accent than mine to make me sound more Anglo Saxon. I know you probably wanted me to say fewer words, but we wanted you to know how grateful we all are. From all of us at ITT Inc., thank you and best of luck. Gigi, please open the line for Q and A.

Speaker 3

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. At this time, if you have a question or comment, please press *11 on your touchtone phone. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing *11 again. We do ask that while you pose your question, you pick up your handset to provide optimal sound quality. Please limit your questions to one question and one follow-up. Thank you. Our first question comes from Mike Halloran from Baird.

Speaker 0

Hey, good morning, everyone.

Speaker 1

Hi, Mike.

Speaker 0

Good morning. Hi.

Speaker 4

Congrats, Mark.

Speaker 0

Sorry you're leaving.

Speaker 4

We'll miss you. Two questions here.

Speaker 0

First question.

Speaker 4

Maybe just spend some time, given the State of the Union as you see it, for global auto production and how you think that tracks in the next year. Obviously, the outperformance metrics will continue, but always good to understand your view on the baseline for the market.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

When you look at auto production, Q3 actually was a good quarter. The production worldwide was up. This is very much a China story, which was up 9.7%, but both Europe and North America were up as well for the full year. Mike, though the auto production will be overall up 2% year over year at 91 million vehicles produced, once again is a China story. China up, whilst Europe and North America are forecasted to be down low single digit. When it comes to 2026, it's still a little bit early to tell, but I would expect it to be flattish to low single digit up. As you rightly said, we outperform in the market in Q3, 360 basis points. Expect to do so for the full year and also in 2026.

Speaker 4

That makes sense. Thank you. Maybe just a little thought process on the funnel and what you're seeing on the IP side specifically. Specifically, certainly sounds like the momentum hasn't really changed. Timing a little variable, comps are harder. What are your customers saying and how confident are you that this funnel can convert to orders in a pretty orderly fashion here?

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

When we look at the funnel, you can see that the funnel year over year is the same. 2024 was an incredible year in terms of the opportunities. There are a couple of important data and signs that confirmed some positives that we shared in the Q2 earnings. The former is that the funnel is up sequentially, Mike, and by quite a bit, by 22%. I'm talking about active quotes, projects that are active. The latter data is that without energy, the funnel is also up year over year by a healthy 9%. Very good positive signs. The funnels are up as well in North America, in APAC, as well as in Latin America.

Another data, and then I will stop, is when you look at the green project, we had very good orders intake on green projects, but also the funnel of opportunity up considerably, as well as the budget quote. Good positive signs on that front.

Speaker 4

Mike, really appreciate it, Luca. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mike.

Speaker 3

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Hammond from KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.

Speaker 0

Hey, good morning everyone and best of luck to Mark. Plan to stay in touch. Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Jeff.

Speaker 1

Morning.

Speaker 0

Just on the $0.20 guidance raise, I'm just wondering if you can unpack. I think you mentioned better profitability, better acquisitions and tax. I don't know if you can quantify those three pieces. It just seems like at a high level the margins and top line aren't changing that much. Thank you, Jeff. Yeah, we raised our full year guidance EPS by $0.20. That's up 13% versus the prior year and plus 3% versus the prior guide. In Q4, like in Q3, we expect our businesses to exceed or come in line with the previous guidance and we also expect lower corporate costs due to spending control measures. If you think about it, Q3 we were up a bit more than $0.10 compared to our previous guidance. In Q4, we are benefiting from higher revenue and improved margin from all the businesses, a little less than $0.10.

Then we have a tax rate impact also that is positive, that is around $0.01. Okay, very helpful. I know it's a little early to look into 2026 and you mentioned kind of views on auto production, but maybe just talk about any markets you think you're more excited about and maybe improving, inflecting, and others that maybe seem a little less certain.

Speaker 3

Sure.

Speaker 1

First of all, Jeff, we are entering 2026 with a strong backlog, and this is thanks to the IP project wins and also to the CCT Defense awards. MT continues to outperform. I would say from a market point of view, air and defense would be a tailwind. In automotive, the outperformance will drive the growth in Motion Technologies. When you look at IP, it is a very strong backlog, and as we just shared with Mike, the fundamental opportunity is also increasing. We are still very excited about the acquisition in terms of we expect Svanehøj and Casoria to deliver on the growth in 2026, which is going to be fed by the huge orders growth that they had this year.

Speaker 0

Okay, thanks so much, guys. Thanks, Jeff.

Speaker 3

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Vlad Bistricki from Citi.

Speaker 4

Morning guys. Thanks for taking my call and congratulations. Mark, sorry to see you moving on, but wish you good luck. Just a couple of quick ones for me. In Industrial Process, the commentary around short cycle orders being up 5% seems quite encouraging, I guess, in the current environment. Can you talk about maybe any color on regions or end markets that are driving that and how you're thinking about the sustainability of short cycle momentum in Industrial Process?

Speaker 0

Yeah, thanks Val. We were pretty excited to see good short cycle activity. We had strong activity in parts as well as in valve. If you look at parts, while July wasn't great, August and September really delivered the growth for us. From a baseline pump standpoint, we had also good numbers, slight growth. Valves was very strong. Here what we're seeing is the foray we've made in the medical valves, especially on those weight loss drugs, which is delivering for us.

Speaker 1

If I may add, Vlad, the short cycle is 5%. The legacy short cycle growth was actually 7% in the quarter. When you look at that 7%, 4% was volume. This is also another good sign.

Speaker 4

That's really helpful color. Thanks guys. Just sticking in IP, you highlighted again the strong win rates that you're seeing in Saudi pumps. Can you just talk about underlying market demand trends there and the opportunities you're seeing in Saudi and Middle East more broadly, whether you're seeing any change in demand, demand patterns in that region for IP?

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

We are very excited about our growth opportunities there. As you can see in all the quotes that we put there, the team won 95% of those quotes. The funnel is increasing, and when we look at the funnel sequentially in the Middle East, it is up 21%. These are active projects. The opportunities are there. It is a growth area. We see investment going as well in terms of downstream. In the long term, there are further investments in other areas. This is the reason why we are enlarging our facilities there and investing in manufacturing engineering. I will be there also in November, as I said, celebrating the opening of the expansion and also meeting with some customers. Definitely a growth area for us.

Speaker 0

As Luca was saying, the region is very dynamic. I think in addition to this, customers are recognizing the performance in project management, where we really are able to deliver the pump that they want on time with the quality that they require. This is really making the difference for our business.

Speaker 4

Very helpful.

Speaker 0

Guys.

Speaker 4

I'll get back in queue. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Joe Ritchie from Goldman Sachs.

Speaker 0

Good morning, Joe.

Speaker 1

Hey, guys.

Speaker 4

Good morning. Mac, congratulations. I'm sure we'll keep in touch, but wish you the best. Maybe just kind of starting off. Look, Svanehøj and Casoria so far have just been tremendous, right? I know you talked a lot at Investor Day about this, your ability to potentially compound via M&A going forward. I just want to get a sense, Luca, just on the funnel, like, you know, how attractive is your M&A funnel today? Types of acquisitions that you're looking at. Any potential color there would be great.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Joe. When you look at the funnel, the funnel is rich of opportunities. I can tell you I'm spending quite a bit of time together with Bartec and the business leaders to look at opportunities, meeting management teams and visiting also some company sites. Those opportunities in the funnel are progressing and this is good. I want to restate they are in flow. It's mainly pumps and valves and some on the connectors as well, mainly focused on aero and defense. That is happening and is good. One thing is also, as you said, the two acquisitions we made have been successful. They're over delivering on all fronts. We need to ensure that our process stays rigorous both in terms of from a strategic point of view, it has to be on strategy and also financially that we are going to create value for our shareholders.

All of that, I'm positive on the progress we're making there.

Speaker 4

Yeah, Luca, I know sometimes these are really difficult to figure out exactly when timing is going to work out, even with willing sellers, et cetera. As you kind of think about 2026 and your ability to get a few deals done, how are you kind of handicapping whether you'll be able to get some things done?

Speaker 1

If you look at the last couple of years, for example, Joe, in the last couple of years since the beginning of 2024, we deployed $1.9 billion of capital. $200 million went on capex, $900 million went on M&A, and $800 million went in dividends and share repurchases. I would say we really are working hard to deliver the growth from an M&A point of view as well. If things do not happen, we are going to deploy our capital and repurchase shares. That is our backup option, but the capital will be deployed. Okay, great. If I could just squeeze one.

Speaker 4

More just on orders. Sounded like the activity is very good, particularly on the Industrial Process side. I know you mentioned a book to bill kind of greater than 1 for the year, but as I kind of look at the fourth quarter, you've been in that billion dollar range for orders the last few quarters. Is that kind of like, are you tracking towards a number in that ballpark for 4Q?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I would say yes, Joe. One thing that I want to stress on the orders is there has been a lot of phasing if you think about this year. Right. If you think about Q3, for sure the book to bill in Q3 is not great, but there was a very tough comparison in Industrial Process projects versus the prior year when we booked a huge project in the Middle East and also on Svanehøj. Many customers anticipated orders in the first half. Our philosophy, Joe, is to take the orders as soon as we can get them. On the orders front, it is a good story for ITT Inc.

The book to bill for the full year will be comfortably above 1, and the backlog that we will have at the end of the year is going to be higher than the backlog that we had when we started in 2025. As Emmanuel Caprais said, also the picture is good on the short cycle as well, which is good.

Speaker 4

Perfect.

Speaker 1

Thank you, guys. Thank you, Joe.

Speaker 3

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Somerville from DA Davidson.

Speaker 4

Thanks to a similar comment, Mark. Morning. Just on the auto side of the business, can you talk about what you're seeing in aftermarket and if that business, as you look out over the next several years, does that still really stay relegated from a geographic perspective to Europe? How should we be thinking about the ramp in high performance in Vidar over the next year or two and then a follow up?

Speaker 1

Thank you. Sure. When you look at the aftermarket, the aftermarket, we are staying in Europe. There is no move to other regions. This is only the market where we play and we decided to play. Also in that market, we position ourselves only at the top end. The aftermarket probably is the only area where we saw some decline and that is mainly market related. There is not a share conversation to be had there. Now when we look at the high performance, the high performance is progressing well. The plant in Tamale is producing a supply to our customers. We continue to win awards. If you look, we won several awards in Q3 with companies like Daimler as well as Audi. The plant is also using green energy. That high performance plant can run 100% with actually the green energy.

Very positive growth on the high performance side when it comes to Vidar. Vidar as well, I would say is progressing well. We have it installed with three major energy companies in the U.S. Now what you find here, Matt, is a revolutionary product in an industrial environment. We really need to test it, the customer really to see it working for some time, you will face the typical S curve. Having said that, we are still committed to $150 million of sales by 2030 and a 10% market share on a $6 billion market in the long term. We keep on investing a lot, Matt, in this one and to ensure that we have the product for the European Union as well as the larger sizes in the U.S.

Speaker 4

Thank you for that color. Just as a follow up, I mean the number of platform wins, I don't know the number off the top of my head year to date, but it feels like you've been winning 30, 40, 50, kind of on a per quarter basis here over the last couple quarters. What is your actual win rate in MT Friction OEM on the platforms you're competing on?

Speaker 1

It's a very good win rate, and I would say if you look at also the electrified platforms year to date are 142, which is the same number of platforms that we won for last year in 2024. These platform wins is one of the pillar of our friction strategy to ensure that we keep on gaining share.

Speaker 3

So.

Speaker 1

We are confident we will keep on improving our market share in the next few years as well because of these wins. Great. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3

Our next question comes from the line of Joseph Giordano from TD Cowen.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning, guys.

Speaker 0

Hi, Joe. I guess if you guys start.

Speaker 4

Beating on corporate expense, we'll know you were paying Mark Macaluso too much, right?

Speaker 0

Is that the way we should think about it?

Speaker 4

You got it.

Speaker 1

You got it.

Speaker 4

There has been a lot of talk now about these chip shortages in Europe for auto and potential shutdowns of production as that plays out. Just curious what you're seeing there and what you're hearing in terms of near term visibility.

Speaker 0

Sure.

Speaker 1

When we look at Q3, Europe posted a very slight growth in terms of production of 1%. Both Europe and North America are forecasting for the full year a declining production of roughly 2%. These two markets, from a production point of view, are still challenged. This is what we're seeing. Our customers are challenged from an investment point of view with a new platform, from a competitive point of view, because the competitive environment is getting tougher with the Chinese OEMs. At the same time, the way that they need to win is with the new models, new products coming to the market. This is an opportunity for us to keep on increasing our market share.

Speaker 0

Regarding the chip shortage, we read the headlines with Nexperia like everyone else. For the moment, our customers are not voicing any concern directly to us. We had a pretty strong month of October in terms of deliveries for Europe. We don't know exactly what that means, but Europe was a little bit stronger than what we were expecting in October.

Speaker 4

Interesting. Okay. As you start thinking about 2026, like you look at some of these businesses that orders up so large, I mean, obviously that's going to de-risk the revenue profile into next year. Are those sustainable order levels? Like, do you, how do you prepare for, like, is there likely to have some big decline in orders that you need to calibrate? What's the real kind of underlying multiyear trend line? Like, how do you, how do you operate when you have those kind of dramatic moves one way or the other?

Speaker 0

Yeah. This year for sure, I would say if you had told us that Svanehøj would grow more than 50% in terms of orders year to date, we would have said no way. What we saw during the year though is that a really strong first half with really, really strong growth and customers actually pulled in orders in order to secure capacity within Svanehøj. That's why the second half is a little weaker. I don't expect that next year will be as strong as what we're seeing this year because on average, remember we said that we expect growth of low double digits for the next five years. I think 2025 was especially strong. We think it's going to normalize over the year, but still delivering over the long term low double digits growth.

Speaker 4

Thanks guys.

Speaker 0

Thanks, Jim.

Speaker 1

Thanks Joe.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Damian Karas from UBS.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning everyone. Mark, thanks, bud.

Speaker 0

You too.

Speaker 4

You guys are doing quite well in IP. Really strong organic growth there. We have been hearing from some peers out there that there's been maybe some deferrals going on in the project space, kind of in the process markets. Just curious if you happen to be seeing any of that in your business.

Speaker 1

The short answer is no, not really. Not material. As a matter of fact, the design that we had in this quarter, which was positive, was on the funnel. The funnel has gone up sequentially by quite a bit. When I'm talking about the funnel, I'm not inserting in the funnel budgetary quote. I'm talking just about funnel of active projects, so projects that are funded. No, not really. We had in our orders some phasing because, you know, with programs always happen that way. No.

Speaker 4

Okay, that's good to hear. Emmanuel, I was hoping you could maybe give us a little bit of framework for CCT margins. Thinking about 2026. You know, there's that deal amortization, thinking about how that will factor in, and then maybe just some of the mix items that you think about, you know, the areas like OE and aftermarket and aerospace and events, energy and the like.

Speaker 0

Sure. Let me start by saying that it's a little bit early for 2026, but let me give some broad strokes in terms of CCT. Obviously, CCT will continue to benefit from the aerospace recovery. What's interesting is that so far we've seen more narrow body recovery, and we expect wide body, where CCT and RCT business is stronger in a shipset, from a shipset standpoint. Aero volumes up. I think with that, this will be compounded by price. We have high expectations from a price standpoint for CCT. On this point specifically, we continue to negotiate with Boeing, and we're making some really good progress. We value Boeing as a customer, and I think it shows in their proposal that they value us as well. This, from a top line standpoint, should be really a tailwind.

From a profit standpoint, I think in CCT there are a lot of opportunities. From a sourcing and a manufacturing standpoint, we are seeing sites like Orchard Park site, for instance, which is doing really well and also investing in automation process of projects in order to support the growth in bill rates. We have other sites in CCT where we still need to make progress. We still need to go after efficiencies, so we're working a lot on machining efficiencies. That should drive really margin expansion in addition to volume and price. Finally, the end of the temporary amortization that you discussed should bring a little bit more than $0.10 coming from Casoria next year.

Speaker 4

That's really helpful. Thanks everyone. Good luck.

Speaker 0

Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Sabrina Adams from Bank of America.

Hey, good morning everyone.

Speaker 0

Hi.

Congratulations, Mark.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much.

Speaker 0

Sabrina.

I'm going to follow up on Damian's question there. On margins, the incrementals have had a lot of temporary amortization the past two years and have been running maybe closer to 25%. I think I'm seeing the implied incremental somewhere closer to 33% in Q4 when you're anniversarying, I guess maybe just some thoughts on how to think about incrementals into next year versus what we've seen in the past couple of years as you anniversary the amortization. I think historically been able to do closer to even 40%. Just any direction there.

Yes, Sabrina. When you remove the impact of acquisitions, our incremental in Q3 were around 40%. All the businesses were really strong, with Motion Technologies the strongest. In Q4 we expect similar incrementals excluding the impact of acquisitions. For 2026, we, I think, you know, around 30 to 35% is probably a good number to keep in mind.

Thank you. I just wanted to ask a little bit about the pricing environment. Clearly tariffs have not been an issue for your execution. In general, what are you seeing from your customers in terms of pricing acceptance? How is the pricing environment evolving? I think we've heard from some channel checks that there's been a lot of inflation pushed this year. Maybe next year it'll be more difficult. I know you guys have some idiosyncratic pricing on the arrow side. Maybe thoughts there on how that's evolving?

Speaker 1

Sure, Christina. When it comes to pricing, the dynamic is different in the different businesses. I would say the area where we have more pricing power remains CCT. This is where you will see more impact. When it comes to IP, Sabrina, the price will be more strategic, and we will really have to be more analytical and understand where we can really price the value for that specific pump in the specific region for that specific customer. When it comes to automotive, that is a completely different dynamic.

Thank you.

Thanks Sabrina.

Speaker 3

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our last question comes from the line of Nathan Jones from Stifel.

Speaker 0

Good morning, Nathan. Good morning, everyone.

Speaker 4

This is Andres on for Nathan.

Speaker 0

Thanks for taking my question. Wanted to quickly ask. Margins were very strong. 20.2% for Motion Technologies. Can you provide the margin impact from FX transaction? Sure. When you look at Motion Technologies, we are very excited that for the second quarter in a row they are above 20%. The FX transaction I want to say was still negative in absolute value, but year over year was a benefit of around 100 basis points.

Speaker 4

Thank you, I appreciate that. I guess we talked a lot about A and D. Can you.

Speaker 0

Just provide a little bit more color.

Speaker 4

On prospects for improving growth aside from.

Speaker 1

A and D within CCT?

Speaker 0

Yeah. A and D for us has been pretty strong. As I mentioned, A and D historically has been a little weaker than everybody else because we are more tilted towards widebody than narrowbody. In the quarter, orders for Aerospace were up in the high teens and Defense was also up in the mid single digits. Casoria was really strong as well. The quarter in Q3 was pretty good. I think when you look at Q4, we expect growth to continue to accelerate with both Aero and Defense to be around the 20% mark in terms of growth. Obviously, this implies that we have to ramp up our production to make sure that we support our customers in delivering the products that they need.

Speaker 4

Awesome.

Speaker 0

Thank you, guys.

Speaker 4

Appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. Please disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.