Ralliant - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Executive Summary

• Q2 2025 revenue of $503.3M declined 5.7% YoY and rose 4% sequentially; adjusted EPS of $0.67 beat S&P Global consensus of $0.564, and revenue was modestly above $501.6M consensus; adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.8% compressed 530 bps YoY on T&M volume deleveraging, standalone public company costs, and tariff headwinds. EPS/revenue estimates from S&P Global marked with asterisks below.*
• Sensors & Safety Systems (S&SS) grew revenue 1% YoY with 28.4% adj. EBITDA margin (up 90 bps YoY), driven by utilities and defense; Test & Measurement (T&M) revenue fell 15% YoY and margin fell to 9.1% (down 1,290 bps YoY) but improved sequentially and is guided to at least double-digit margin in Q3.
• Management launched a cost savings program targeting $9–$11M of annualized savings to address spin-related T&M dis-synergies, sees tariff headwinds of ~$40M in 2025 (about $12M in Q2), and expects to fully offset ongoing tariff impact by year-end (with a ~100 bps gross margin drag thereafter).
• Capital returns initiated: up to $200M share repurchase authorization and a $0.05 quarterly dividend; balance sheet started with $199M cash and $1.15B term loan (net leverage 1.9x).

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

What Went Well

• Utilities and Defense strength: S&SS revenue up 1% YoY and 6% QoQ; adj. EBITDA margin expanded to 28.4% (+90 bps YoY) on robust utilities grid modernization and defense program demand.
• Sequential improvement in T&M: T&M revenue +2% QoQ and adj. EBITDA margin +230 bps QoQ as orders stabilized and new products began contributing; management expects at least double-digit T&M adj. EBITDA margin in Q3.
• Strong FCF and capital returns: Q2 free cash flow $74M (97.8% conversion), $200M buyback authorization, and $0.05 dividend underscore cash generation and shareholder return framework.
• Management quote: “We are launching a Cost Savings Program targeted at mitigating spin-related dis-synergies and contributing to adjusted EBITDA margin expansion”.

What Went Wrong

• T&M cyclicality and exposure: Revenue -15% YoY and adjusted EBITDA margin down 1,290 bps YoY, driven by weaker EV/battery in Western Europe and softness in China; tariffs and standalone costs compounded pressure.
• Regional softness: Western Europe down 23% YoY on EV/battery weakness; North America down 5% YoY; China modestly down 1% as S&SS growth was offset by T&M demand limits and export controls.
• Tariff headwinds and higher OpEx: ~$40M FY25 tariff cost headwind (~$12M in Q2) with public company and employee costs lifting adjusted operating expense; Q3 adjusted OpEx expected at ~$170M as the go-forward run-rate ramps.

Transcript

Speaker 1

My name is Donna and I will be your conference facilitator this morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ralliant Corporation Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, simply press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Nathan McCurran, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. McCurran, you may begin your conference.

Speaker 0

Thank you, Donna. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us for our first earnings call as Ralliant. I'm Nathan McCurran, VP of Investor Relations. Today we'll walk through our second quarter 2025 results, highlight key operational progress, and provide an outlook for the third quarter. I'm joined today by Tammy Newcombe, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Neal Reynolds, our Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release issued yesterday and today's presentation can be accessed on the Investors section of our website at ralliant.com. Please note that we'll be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures on today's call. A reconciliation of these items to U.S. GAAP can be found in the appendix to our presentation. During today's call, and unless otherwise stated, we're comparing our second quarter 2025 results to the same period in 2024.

During the call we will make forward-looking statements, including statements regarding events or developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially from any forward-looking statements we make today. Information regarding these risks and uncertainties is available in our information statement filed with the SEC on May 28, 2025, and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 27, 2025. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Tammy.

Speaker 1

Glad to have you on the team, Nathan. Welcome to Ralliant's second quarter earnings call. We are joining you from our new headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina. It's hard to believe that just weeks ago many of us were together at our investor day. That day marked the beginning of a new chapter for Ralliant and we're incredibly grateful that you've joined us again as we are taking our first steps forward as a public company. I want to begin by recognizing our team, the energy, focus, and commitment they've shown during this transition has been nothing short of extraordinary. Their belief in our mission and their drive to serve our customers is what gives me confidence in our future. Over the next hour, my goal is to provide you with a high-level overview of our financial performance and share how we are navigating as an independent company.

Neal will do a deep dive into our Q2 2025 results and provide our Q3 outlook. I'll come back and demonstrate how we are executing our strategy and the exciting growth opportunities ahead. Let's begin on slides 4 and 5 with a quick overview of our business. Ralliant provides essential technologies for our electrified and digital world. We design, manufacture, and service precision instruments and engineered products for mission-critical applications. In 2024, we had revenue of $2.2 billion with 26% adjusted EBITDA margin. Over the past five years, we grew revenue by 3.5% and adjusted EBITDA by 9%, generating $2 billion of cumulative free cash flow. We have two strategic reporting segments, Sensors and Safety Systems and Test and Measurement. The segments include iconic brands with leading positions in attractive markets. Now shifting to our Q2 results, I'll begin on slide 6 with key takeaways for the quarter.

On June 28, we emerged as a public company with a legacy of operating rigor and a focused, profitable growth strategy. Our Q2 revenue was in line with our expectations as we continued to see secular demand in the utilities and defense markets, with Test and Measurement improving sequentially. More on that shortly. We generated strong free cash flow with a conversion rate of 98% of adjusted net earnings, demonstrating the power of our Ralliant Business System, or RBS. The profitable growth strategy we shared at our investor day in June capitalizes on secular tailwinds where we are well positioned in high growth vectors coupled with our stronghold positions in markets where we create enduring customer value. Lastly, post spin, we're activating a cost savings program, initially targeting $9 to $11 million of dis-synergies in Test and Measurement created by the separation.

Moving to Slide 7 for a brief overview of our Q2 2025 financial performance. Our second quarter results reflect the resilience of our business in a dynamic operating environment. We navigated macroeconomic uncertainty while remaining focused on executing our long term growth strategy. We balanced short term pressures with disciplined capital deployment and a relentless focus on execution underpinned by RBS. The second quarter's revenue was in line with our expectations, with sequential revenue growth in both segments. We saw strong demand in the Sensors and Safety Systems segment with continued secular momentum across utility customers and defense programs. Utilities revenue rose significantly both year over year and sequentially, fueled by ongoing capital spend for global energy grid modernization. Our precision sensing and data analytics solutions are essential to ensuring reliable power, and we're optimistic about expanded offerings in defense and space. The replenishment of existing defense programs endures.

Many countries' current defense outlook has a significant budget step up. Prioritizing missile programs, hypersonic and space all would benefit Ralliant globally. Industrial manufacturing has shown some green shoots in critical environments, including new opportunities in the data center. Yet demand in Europe remains soft in the Test and Measurement segment. Consistent with expectations, revenue remained down year over year. Sequentially, we are seeing gradual improvement. Communications had positive mid single digit sequential revenue growth driven by an increase in investment in the research and development labs for the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the technology going to AI data centers. Our diversified electronics and semiconductor end markets were up slightly sequentially in Q2 as we saw each of these markets stabilize after several quarters of revenue decline.

In diversified electronics, we're seeing healthy channel positions and some positive trends for industrial, consumer, university research, grid energy storage, and medical. Electric vehicle and battery applications drove our most significant revenue decline year over year in Test and Measurement. Semiconductor customer spending remains lumpy. We have long standing relationships with semi customers. These customers' CapEx investment comes in cycles, but they continuously innovate. We have maintained our investment in field applications, engineers, and innovation collaboration to be well positioned as each of these customers invest. This quarter, Tektronix will begin shipping an industry-leading high-performance oscilloscope, an innovation already generating strong customer interest and strengthening our order pipeline. This is one of many new products launched this year, demonstrating how our platform engineering is accelerating innovation across our Test and Measurement segment. Turning to slide 8, I'll share regional insights. In Q2, North America revenue declined 5% year over year.

Looking forward, we have great positioning here with exposure to utilities, defense, and new products launching in Test and Measurement. China was stable with a modest 1% decline as growth in utilities was largely offset by lower demand in Test and Measurement. Western Europe remained challenged, down 23%, mainly due to the continued weakness year over year I called out across electric vehicles and batteries. Our Rest of World region led performance with 5% growth as most markets stabilized and we saw strong demand in Japan, Latin America, and portions of Eastern Europe. As we move forward, we remain committed to delivering sustainable growth, expanding margins, and creating long-term value for our shareholders. Next, Neal will walk you through the details of our financials.

Speaker 0

It's great to be here, Tammy. I am both excited and grateful to join you in participating in Ralliant's inaugural earnings call. I would also like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to our dedicated Ralliant team for their hard work and tireless effort to get us here. I'll begin with an overview of our second quarter 2025 performance starting on Slide 10. Comparisons are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. During the quarter, we generated revenue of $503 million, representing a 6% decline year over year, but an increase of 4% sequentially. Strong demand continued in our Sensors and Safety Systems segment, driven by growth in both utilities and defense and space end markets.

The industrial manufacturing end market continued to deliver stable revenue, which marks its sixth consecutive quarter of revenue stability. Test and Measurement remained down year over year but stabilized during the quarter, contributing to overall sequential revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.8% in the quarter was down 530 basis points year over year, driven by lower volumes in the Test and Measurement segment, increased employee and standalone public company costs, and tariffs. This was partially offset by year-over-year revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion in Sensors and Safety Systems. Sequentially, adjusted EBITDA margin was down 140 basis points as the margin benefits from higher volume were offset by higher standalone public company costs and tariffs. By leveraging RBS, we expect to fully offset the ongoing tariff impact by the end of the year, and I will address the countermeasures we are taking later in our prepared remarks.

Looking ahead, consistent with this team's track record, adjusted EBITDA margin expansion will be a core focus for us. We are confident delivering improvements. Adjusted EPS of $0.67 declined 23% year over year, driven by lower volume in Test and Measurement, standalone public company costs, and tariffs. I will note that the second quarter did not include any interest expense, which we began incurring during the third quarter. Consistent with our strong cash generation track record, we generated $74 million of free cash flow in the quarter and achieved a 98% conversion rate. Now let's drill into segment performance in the quarter, starting with Sensors and Safety Systems. On Slide 11, Sensors and Safety Systems delivered revenue of $311 million, representing greater than 60% of Ralliant's total revenue.

Revenue grew 1% year over year and 6% sequentially as demand continued to gain traction in the utilities and defense and space end markets. Utilities revenue reached double-digit growth year over year as customers are continuing to invest in electric grid expansion, fueling growth in our sensors, analytics, and grid monitoring solutions. We continue to experience defense and space demand as customers expand multi-year requirements for existing defense programs. The increased demand has led to order growth to exceed revenue growth. We are currently leveraging RBS to accelerate output in order to support customer timelines for expansion. Moving to Test and Measurement on Slide 12, Test and Measurement revenue declined 15% year over year, primarily due to weakness in EVs and China. Notably, on a sequential basis, Test and Measurement delivered 2% growth as order trends began to stabilize during the quarter.

We anticipate continued sequential revenue improvements in the second half of the year, supported by stronger contributions from new product launches and seasonality, though we expect these gains will be gradual. Regarding seasonality, we tend to see a ramp in Test and Measurement as the year progresses, resulting in a first to second half split of approximately 48% to 52%, respectively. On average, adjusted EBITDA margin for Test and Measurement was down approximately 1300 basis points compared to last year, primarily due to lower sales volumes and tariffs. On a positive note, adjusted EBITDA margins improved by 230 basis points sequentially, and we expect a return to double-digit % levels in the third quarter. This improvement is expected to be driven by higher volumes, the ramp-up of our tariff mitigation efforts, and our cost savings program.

Turning to our balance sheet on Slide 13, we start out as a public company with a strong balance sheet with $199 million in cash and cash equivalents and $1.15 billion in term loan debt, resulting in 1.9 times net leverage. From this cash balance, we have approximately $90 million of spin-related obligations to Fortive or taxing authorities under our separation and tax matter agreements expected to be paid in the third quarter. We generated $86 million of operating cash flow in the quarter and spent $12 million on CapEx, or 2% of revenue, resulting in $74 million of free cash flow. On Slide 14, I'll discuss our capital allocation priorities and the actions we have taken.

At our June Investor Day, we outlined our capital allocation priorities of first investing organically in the business, then returning capital through dividends and share buybacks, and lastly executing selective tuck-in acquisitions focused on our high growth vectors. In June, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized up to $200 million of share repurchases, and last week we announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share. These actions demonstrate our capacity and commitment to return capital to shareholders. We will continue to balance these capital allocation priorities based on our target cash balance and target net leverage of 1.5 to 2 times adjusted EBITDA as defined under our credit agreement. On slide 15, I want to double click and provide color on expenses related to tariffs and our operating costs to ensure everyone understands the Q2 and spin-related impacts. Let me start with tariffs.

For the full year, we expect approximately $40 million of cost headwinds, with China tariffs being the largest contributor. Approximately $12 million of that total cost hit in the second quarter. RBS is in full gear as we execute our proven playbook and successfully navigate the current environment. To that end, we expect to fully offset the ongoing tariff impact by year end. At that point, we expect a continued gross margin headwind of about 100 basis points. The tariff countermeasures we are deploying are focused on both pricing and supply chain. By utilizing fundamental RBS toolkits, we have responded quickly and effectively to changes in tariff policy. In 2018, we began the shift to an in-region for-region manufacturing and sourcing strategy, which we have continued to execute, reducing our exposure to imports from China, adding to our continued operating rigor, a strong U.S.

manufacturing footprint, and reduced reliance on China. We believe we are well positioned to continue to navigate this dynamic environment. Now let me address operating expenses as we move forward as a public company. We want to update you on our expected operating cost structure. In Q2, adjusted operating expense was $156 million, up $8 million from the first quarter, representing an initial step up in standalone public company costs to prepare us for our separation from Fortive. In addition to this, we have cost dis-synergies or stranded costs resulting from the spin from Fortive. Tami will discuss how we are addressing that with the cost savings program we are launching. This Q2 adjusted operating expense amount excludes $10 million of duplicative Fortive SG&A allocations that will not repeat moving forward. We have made a non-GAAP adjustment to remove these accounting charges.

In our presentation, we have provided a table summarizing our non-GAAP adjustments, a reconciliation of our adjusted OpEx, and a bridge of adjusted operating expenses pre-spin to what we view as a representative run rate beginning in Q3. In Q3, we expect operating costs to increase to approximately $170 million on an adjusted basis, which is reflective of a fully ramped quarterly run rate going forward. This represents a full quarter of standalone costs along with other employee expenses that were reconciled post-spin, including stock-based compensation and healthcare costs, in addition to the normal step up in annual merit increase that took effect in Q2 as well. Included in the $170 million adjusted operating expense run rate we expect beginning in Q3 are standalone costs of approximately $13 million.

We expect this to represent a go-forward run rate of approximately $50 to $55 million annually instead of the approximately $45 million annually or $11 million per quarter shared at our pre-spin investor day. This increase of $1 to $2 million per quarter is driven by us learning more as our new leaders began to actively build out their organizations and further refine the estimate that Fortive had previously established. We also anticipate an increase of other employee costs of $3 to $5 million per quarter driven primarily by higher stock-based compensation and healthcare costs which started to materialize in Q2. This is in addition to the typical annual merit increase that took effect in Q2. We hope this additional color is helpful as you seek to model Ralliant.

We will continue to actively evaluate areas of additional cost productivity to support our through-cycle adjusted EBITDA margin target of low to mid 20% and now let's turn to our guidance on slide 16. As a new public company launching halfway through the year, we will be providing quarterly guidance for the remainder of the year across revenue, adjusted EBITDA margin, and adjusted EPS. We will revisit our guidance policy for full year 2026 and plan to provide an update in Q1 on our approach. For the third quarter of 2025, we expect revenue of $513 to $527 million, which implies year-over-year revenue growth of down 1% to down 4%. We expect continued demand in Sensors and Safety Systems with strong backlog supporting our revenue growth. We anticipate stable demand in Test and Measurement with gradual sequential improvement in line with typical seasonality.

As I discussed earlier, for the third quarter we expect adjusted EBITDA margin of 18% to 20% with sequential improvement in Test and Measurement adjusted EBITDA margin to at least double digits in Q3. We have begun to incur interest expense after the spin, which we expect to result in $16 million to $18 million. For Q3 we also expect an adjusted effective tax rate of 17% to 19% and weighted average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 113 million. We expect this to result in Q3 adjusted diluted EPS of $0.54 to $0.60 per share. Wrapping up my remarks, our Q3 outlook assumes gradual improvement in demand but continued macro and tariff dynamics to navigate. We have plans in place that provide a path back to our long-term target revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin through our proven RBS playbook and proactive countermeasures.

With that, I'll turn it back to Tammy to talk through an update on our profitable growth strategy.

Speaker 1

Thank you for providing clarity on our financials, Neal. Our profitable growth strategy is grounded in three pillars. The first pillar is RBS Everywhere. We will continue to focus on innovation and operating rigor. RBS enables us to drive scale, efficiency, and profitability across the enterprise. The second pillar is Stronghold Positions, where our imperative is delivering ongoing customer value, including services, product roadmaps, and global channel reach. The third pillar is Winning Growth Vectors, where we are investing to capture secular growth trends, specifically in grid modernization, defense technologies, and power electronics. Now I'll cover a few examples of how we are executing our strategy. First, Tektronix was recognized with Northrop Grumman's 2025 Supplier Performance Excellence Award. Out of more than 20,000 suppliers worldwide, only 50 received this honor. This is a prime example of how RBS Everywhere is making a difference to our customers.

Next, Gemcetra is expanding our strong position in pressure and flow sensors to the AI data center. We are partnering with the manufacturers of state-of-the-art liquid and air cooling systems to increase operational efficiency in utilities. Qualitrol is shipping the new AI-enabled arc detection feature for their generation and transmission monitoring solutions. This feature employs AI software to automate the customer workflow and predict the precise fault location. Now our utility customers have real-time data analytics to predict failures before they occur, thus saving costly downtime and electricity disruptions around the globe. Finally, I want to acknowledge our PacSci EMC team for delivering mission-critical innovations that enhance safety and reliability for our customers. Last month, an F-35 military plane crashed in California.

PacSci EMC supplies the canopy fracturing system used in the event of an ejection, and thanks to the team, another pilot was able to eject safely and return home to his family. Hopefully these examples bring to life how we are continuing to execute our strategy with our customers. Before we turn to Q&A, I want to spend some time on our Test and Measurement segment. Please turn to slide 19. I'll start with historical context for the growth pattern we have seen in Test and Measurement. Coming out of COVID, we realized strong growth beginning with double-digit revenue growth in both 2021 and 2022. Revenue continued to outperform versus the Test and Measurement peer group over a seven quarter period from mid-2022 through the beginning of 2024.

The demand was driven by power applications such as electric mobility, new battery technologies, and charging infrastructure where the portfolio is well positioned. Since that peak, orders began to decline in late 2023, resulting in organic revenue declines beginning in the first quarter of 2024 amid very tough comps. To start 2024, we closed the EA Elektro-Automatik acquisition and almost immediately felt the sharp market decline in EA's largest end market, automotive and particularly electric vehicle and battery investment, predominantly in Europe. Despite the setback, we remain confident in EA's leading technology and our opportunity to reach new customers through the Tektronix brand and global channel. Throughout this period, we have maintained investments in R&D to drive innovation and future growth. This year exemplifies ongoing innovation with eight new product launches, including first half announcements for battery testing and new probing technology.

As I mentioned earlier, Tektronix will begin shipping a new 7 Series high-performance oscilloscope that allows a new level of performance for many Test and Measurement applications. We came into 2025 with uncertainty around the shifting global trade dynamics and softer for longer demand within our loyal Test and Measurement customers. After bottoming last quarter, Test and Measurement revenue stabilized, turning to slightly positive sequential growth in Q2, and we expect further gradual improvement as we finish the year. The Test and Measurement segment has a higher fixed cost base than our other businesses, largely driven by higher R&D, so we tend to see the highest incremental and decremental margins here. As a result, the revenue decline has contributed to a significant drop in adjusted EBITDA margin.

While we have a lot to be excited about for the future of Test and Measurement as an independent company, we are taking proactive actions to improve adjusted EBITDA margins. We are starting by addressing spin-related dis-synergies. Specifically, there is an approximately $80 million service business that was previously part of the Test and Measurement segment that remained with Fortive. This leaves us with stranded costs from the dis-synergies. To optimize our operations and to help offset these dis-synergies, we are further consolidating our services footprint and activating a cost savings program initially targeting $9 to $11 million of annualized savings. We expect to achieve approximately $4 million of annualized savings as we exit 2025 and the remaining $6 million in 2026. Most of this anticipated benefit will be in cost of sales, with a small amount of operating expense savings.

Between the sequential revenue increase in the second quarter, the many new product announcements this year, and the margin improvement actions, we are confident the Test and Measurement segment will contribute to Ralliant's long-term financial targets. Now I'd like to open up the mic for your questions. Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one on your telephone keypad at this time. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. We do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Again, that's Star one to register a question at this time.

Our first question today is coming from Julian Mitchell of Barclays. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Hi, good morning and congratulations on getting the first standalone company earnings out of the way. Maybe the first question just around the Test and Measurement segment top line outlook. I think that the total company have guided sales up sequentially, sort of, you know, low mid single digits in Q3. Should we expect both segments, that is including Test and Measurement, to be moving at a similar pace? The commentary on the 48/52 first half, second half sales split, I think that's implying you're still down maybe close to 10% year on year in Q4 in Test and Measurement. Just wanted to sort of understand that process and any sort of color on Western Europe and comms because those were very weak in Q2 still.

Speaker 1

Hey Julian, grateful to have you on our first call with us today. We're certainly encouraged by this sequential improvement we saw in Test and Measurement. I will say that's one data point and not a trend line yet. We also have good access to over 90,000 customers that we sell to around the globe, and we get insights through our sales teams. In the Test and Measurement space, we're about 50/50 direct and indirect, so we get channel insights, point of sale, and regional color. As I think forward to going forward, we called a gradual improvement. We said that for the company. You'll also see that in the Test and Measurement space. I think as Neal shared, the typical seasonality is the 48/50.

Speaker 0

Got it. If we're thinking about sort of the EBITDA margins here, you talked about that double-digit third quarter number for Test and Measurement. I guess sort of rolling in the $4 million savings number, it sounds like that moves up somewhat sequentially in Q4. Taking a step back, is the aspiration with these cost measures to get Test and Measurement sort of firmly into that medium-term margin range next year? I think at the investor day you said kind of mid-teens to low 20s through cycle. Is the purpose of all these cost outs and so forth to get sort of into the low end of that range next year?

Speaker 1

Yeah, we're still confident in the adjusted EBITDA range that we shared at Investor Day, mid teens to high teens. The cost savings program which we are starting with is in the Test and Measurement services business. That annualized savings you will see is in the cost of sales of that business and we will continue. There's sort of a short term, just out of the spin here, six and a half weeks in, immediate actions that we're taking there to get after some of the stranded costs. As we move through the next quarter and prepare for 2026, we'll continue to employ our RBS toolkit and drive continued margin expansion.

Speaker 0

Let me just follow up on that as well. Julian, this is Neal. I think as you move into the second half of the year, you're also going to see some tailwinds from some of the tariff mitigation efforts we put into place, both from a pricing front as well as a supply chain view. In addition to some underlying gradual volume improvement underlying some of those pricing measures, we're also seeing a little bit of tailwind from FX. As we start to see that improve, we'll also see some structural improvement in the overall margin profile, both in Test and Measurement, but also in Sensors and Safety Systems. When you take a step back, the gross margins are going to start improving as we get to the back half of the year. That'll be offset a little bit by the higher OpEx that we talked about.

From a health perspective, we start to see the margin enhancements underlying the business start to improve fundamentally as we start to enter the second half of the year.

Speaker 1

Got it.

Speaker 0

When you put all that together, does it mean Test and Measurement in the fourth quarter could be at that?

Speaker 1

Mid teens.

Speaker 0

I think we're cautious. We're optimistic about where we sit right now. As you know, the business is also somewhat volume sensitive. We're cautious, but we're optimistic about what we'll see from a volume perspective. Clearly, the cost savings program that will be laid out will help. I don't think we're going to go out as far as Q4 right now to talk about exactly where we'll be, but improvement as we work into the second half of the year is kind of where we sit right now. Great, thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Piyush Avatsi of Citi. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Good morning, guys.

Speaker 1

Good morning.

Speaker 0

Yeah, can you start with the demand activity that you're seeing across North America? I think last quarter order growth was driven by NAMM and this quarter revenue is down with single digit on somewhat easier comps versus the previous year. If you could elaborate a bit on the demand landscape for the region. I know you talked about still an uncertain macro environment, but any change in competitive dynamics that might be impacting growth there.

Speaker 1

Yeah, thanks for joining us. By the way, as we think about North America specifically, we're encouraged by the spend in our utility space, both in the aging infrastructure, sort of build out and expansion of the energy grid, as well as our space and defense. Business is strong in North America, and we're seeing mixed in Test and Measurement. We're seeing mixed spend with some of the large technology companies. Those that have a play in the AI data center have been stronger, and as we said in the prepared remarks, we continue to stay close to our loyal customers as they have different spend cycles. We'll be there as they're innovating.

Speaker 0

That's helpful. I think you mentioned seeing some stabilization in China. Can you elaborate if that is more a function of the underlying demand environment stabilizing, or is it like, you know, if you have enough visibility that these trends won't reverse versus just easier comps helping you?

Speaker 1

Yeah. The business in China is being driven by expansion in our sensing space. We have an in-region business there for utilities, critical environments, and industrials where we've seen growth, which has been offset by some slower Test and Measurement, notably due to some of the export control and customers we can no longer sell to.

Speaker 0

Appreciate all the color, guys. Good luck. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Joseph Giordano of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Good morning, this is Michael on for Joe.

Speaker 1

In the prepared.

Speaker 0

In the prepared remarks you mentioned the Test and Measurement side, I believe, or you know, saw or is seeing accelerated introduction of new products. I think you mentioned about eight new products. Can you quantify how this compares to historical patterns, and you know, are there any end markets that you're targeting in particular?

Speaker 1

Thank you, Michael. As long as we're back on Test and Measurement, I just want to be clear on our long-term through-cycle EBITDA margins for Test and Measurement. I think I incorrectly said mid-teens to high teens in Investor Day. We're still focused on our range of mid-teens to low 20s. That was the right way to frame that. From a new product standpoint, there's small launches, medium launches, and large launches. As we look at the eight different product launches, probably the state-of-the-art, most, the biggest flash and highest demand from our customers is in our high-end 7 Series oscilloscope. This is where we really are on the bleeding edge with our technology customers, designing the next phases of innovation for a number of different end markets that we go into. We've had two announcements already this year around battery tests from our EA acquisition.

There'll be a third coming later in the year. We've had a number of probes announcements, and then also in our, where we play in wafer test in high bandwidth memory for the AI data center, we'll have a new announcement coming out there in the coming months. It's really pretty widespread, and I would point to the work that we did back, oh, about four years ago in platform engineering that is really allowing us to start to get this velocity.

Speaker 0

Great, that's helpful. Just one more if I may. You mentioned that you're hoping to accelerate the region for, you know, in-region supply chain. Can you just give us a sense, you know, where the current portfolio stands, which are most exposed to these cross-border transactions? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Our in region strategy started back in 2018, and it's a combination of manufacturing in region for region as well as, and this is specific to our Test and Measurement business, being able to manufacture in more than one region. About 70% of the portfolio now we can manufacture in at least two different locations. That's one of the levers that we have as we think about the mitigation of tariffs.

Speaker 0

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Amit Dharyanani of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Good morning everyone. I guess I have two as well and maybe I'll start on Test and Measurement as well. If I think about the 10% EBITDA margins you folks are talking about in September in that segment, and Tammy, if I think about your medium term target of, call it, high teens in the midpoint of the range you just talked about, how much of the journey from 10% to high teens EBITDA margin is going to come from self help, leverage, some of the initiatives that you've actually talked about today versus a need for a higher revenue run rate? What does that revenue run rate look like for you to get to those targets?

Speaker 1

Yes. Okay.

Speaker 0

Sorry. Just to start off, if you start to think about how we get into Q3, there's a couple of different components here as it relates to the margin expansion, and I think Tammy can probably talk to a little bit more of the specific actions that we're taking. The biggest thing here is our tariff mitigation efforts. I think as we talked about, the team is in full gear here in terms of the tariff mitigation. From a pricing perspective, we talked a little bit about supply chain perspective. We're certainly seeing a tailwind. We're also getting a little bit of help from FX as we go into the quarter, but there is some underlying benefit coming in as well with volume.

I think volume, tariff mitigation improving from a gross margin perspective, certainly helping as we go into the quarter, and then a little bit on the volume leverage side as I talked about. We'll see those components coming in as it relates to the cost out program. We'll see some benefit from that in the second half of the year. I think what we talked about was getting to about $4 million run rate savings as you get to the end of this year, most in cost of sales, and then maybe midway through 2026 getting to that full ton of $10 million annual run rate as you get to kind of mid-2026. A little bit of volume, some pricing, and some tariffs improvements as we start to see those mitigation efforts pay off. The savings program, as you think about Q4 and beyond, volume is.

Speaker 1

A big lever in the Test and Measurement business. As I went through the sort of historical look, I think that's shown through. We're encouraged by some of the optic we've seen here in Q2, but also still cautious. It's a dynamic environment out there. We've had changes in tariffs almost monthly here as we've gone through the year.

Speaker 0

Got it. Maybe just on this tariff impact. Right. I think you folks talked about a $40 million headwind on the cost side. Can you talk about what your manufacturing footprint looks like? I assume a lot of the headwinds are from China, but just talk about what the footprint looks like right now. When it comes to offsetting this $40 million by year end, how much of that is getting done through price increases versus operational efficiencies, if you may?

Speaker 1

Yeah, here's the, you know, navigating the tariffs, I think is a great place to highlight what I see as a competitive advantage at Ralliant, which is our rally business systems. Just to give you a picture of kind of week to week how this operates, we have the teams that have real-time data on cost increases we're seeing in our supply chain, our logistics. They have real-time data on our price realization that we're getting through price, through surcharges and different levers we have in the business, one being our 21 different manufacturing sites and how we might want to leverage those sites. We have teams show up, cross-functional team. This doesn't get done by one function in the company. They show up at what's called a stand up. They've got the data in front of them. What is most important about our culture is we're taking action.

We're taking action in that week, whether it's shifting where we're sourcing something, shifting where we're manufacturing something, shifting a specific supplier, but the team is actively navigating and managing this. I'll let Neal add a little bit of color here on as we move through the year, what happens with that $40 million.

Speaker 0

Yeah, as we talked about 2Q, we experienced about $12 million in additional cost. We'll see that step up as you go into Q3, Q4, think about a billion dollars a quarter, you know, kind of $12, $13, $14 million. As you move throughout the year from a pricing versus supply chain actions, the majority of it's pricing. We have some supply chain actions that we're working as well and we saw, you know, approximately we're a little bit over 100 basis point hit to margins as you look at Q2 and that'll soften a bit over time.

As you move into the back half of the year, as you start to see some of those pricing actions get pulled and baked into the revenue and you see some of the supply chain actions take effect, we do see that as driving a roughly 100 basis point drag on margins overall as you fully kind of implement those out over time. As Tammy said, the team is actively working this. This is something we work on day in, day out. We can respond to very, very quickly using the tools that we have. We think we've got our plan in place, we're executing it. We got pretty nice confidence around how to manage this as we move into the back half of the year. Perfect. Thanks lots.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Our next question is coming from David Ridley Lane of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Thank you. What were the Test and Measurement orders in the second quarter of 2025 and second quarter of 2024? From an orders perspective, let me just maybe break down what we saw from an ordering perspective. Obviously, volume was down year over year. From an order and revenue perspective, those would be in line and, you know, significantly down year over year. What we saw in the quarter that gave us confidence is if you look underlying the orders and we talk about order stabilization, the amount of revenue that we were booking versus the orders that we were seeing started to match up. If you look into Q2 underlying, you know, some of the FX tailwind that we had, some initial pricing that we had from the countermeasures, from tariffs underlying that, actually volume was slightly down, but orders started to match up.

Revenue and orders started to match up, which is what we're kind of thinking about as stabilization. How that manifests itself as you look into Q3 is we'll continue to see some FX tailwind. We'll continue from a revenue perspective, we'll continue to see some pricing increase as you move into Q3, but underlying volume will also improve. We'll see that across both segments. There will be some modest underlying volume improvement, and that's kind of how we think about stabilization. Orders year over year down, revenue down, stabilization as you move sequentially from Q2 into Q3. Just strategically, why start a cost cutting initiative today in Test and Measurement if there are signs of a cyclical upturn?

Speaker 1

Yeah, good question. Maybe one that's on others' mind. This is directly related to the carve out of service business that we moved to Fortive. There was a service business within our Test and Measurement segment, about $80 million, that stayed with Fortive. This gives us the opportunity to really drive some operational efficiencies with consolidation of some very small field service sites and get a larger hub and regional activity. It's the right thing to do for this business to drive operational improvements directly. I talked about the cost; this cost is in the cost of sales in that service business and something we're getting after starting today.

Speaker 0

Thank you very much.

Speaker 1

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, that is Star One. If you would like to register a question, our next question is coming from Scott Graham of Seaport Research. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question and congratulations on being a public company. I wanted to ask about the Test and Measurement operating income. There was a significant swing from the year ago to this year. I know you talked about stranded costs. You talked about the deleveraging on the revenues. I'm also wondering, is EA maybe operating at a loss and was EA responsible for the big deleveraging? Yeah. I think overall we saw revenue come down, I think in a lot of different places. We saw revenue come down in China, we saw revenue come down in Europe. We don't talk to specific operating company details around profitability, but I think that where we're at from an EA perspective is stable. You don't have a lot of concerns from overall profitability or cash flow in that business as you look year over year.

I would think about just the volume sensitivity and the cycle that came down as you look year over year. As China came down in Test and Measurement, we did see, as you mentioned, a significant drop off in Western Europe, primarily related to EA. I think the other piece is that we're driving negatives where tariffs came online and that was kind of a negative driver for us year over year as well. You kind of had multiple things going on, the volume leverage, along with some other macro issues that brought the margins down maybe even lower than you normally anticipate. However, we are taking care of count on measures. We are seeing this stabilize. We feel cautiously optimistic about where we're headed.

If I flip to the other side of the business, I think we're seeing very, very solid demand and growth in both utilities and in defense. On the Sensors and Safety Systems side, we've got very high margins and great exposure to end markets. Putting all that together, I think you kind of see us here maybe at the bottom from an overall perspective with some nice prospects moving forward. We're encouraged, as we said before with the macro situation, we're cautious, but we're encouraged. Thank you for that, Neal. I guess my other question would be, maybe on the more positive side, you talked about at your investor day, focusing on these growth vectors and grid and space. I was just wondering, you laid out for some of the things you're doing in defense electronics with new products.

I assume that a lot of that is at Tektronix, but if you could tell us a little bit more about what you're doing in defense and space and that's new, some of these focused strategies that you talked about. What's happening within the four walls.

Speaker 1

Thank you for that question. Our Sensors and Safety Systems segment grew 6% sequentially, and we're continuing to see strong secular demand in utilities. This is where customers are continuing to invest in the energy grid, and we're continuing to bring out a new portfolio of products. I talked in the prepared remarks about an arc detection feature which leverages AI to help a customer predict where they might see the next fault in their electrical grid. You'll continue to see that innovation coming out from that particular operating company. In the defense space, the production defense programs that have been around for decades, we've seen the replenishment and expansion in those programs. In this segment, we have an industrial manufacturing footprint, and we've been stable for about six consecutive quarters here. This segment today is 60% of the Ralliant revenues and delivering high 20s adjusted EBITDA margins.

Really healthy and really strong secular demand there.

Speaker 0

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Our next question is coming from Rob Jamison of Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Speaker 0

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Just a couple on Test and Measurement.

Speaker 1

Can you talk a little bit.

Speaker 0

More about the headwinds in auto and EV and the weakness that you're seeing? Is that mostly on the production or R&D side, from a product or workflow application standpoint? Can you also talk about, geographically, where that weakness was, whether that was mostly Europe, European, or any dynamics in China we should be aware of, in terms of you selling into locals versus multinationals and some of the dynamics that are playing out in that market there? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Yeah, thanks for being with us today. I would characterize our automotive as predominantly electric vehicles, electric batteries, and energy storage, and predominantly in Europe. You see that with the declines that we saw in revenue from Q2 year over year. What I would say is when we look at that space, we're starting to see it stabilize, but at a much lower volume at this point. A lot of the business there is related to the Tektronix product line, which is Electro Automatique and their exposure. From a workflow standpoint, it's from R&D into production. We play in the entire workflow there with that part of the portfolio. I'd say stabilizing at a lower amount, we're seeing some of the project business start to have a few green shoots, but probably too early to call any type of a strong comeback there.

Speaker 0

Okay, that helps. No, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1

Is there any.

Speaker 0

Way to quantify how large auto is within that diversified electronics bucket that you have? I mean, is it potentially 20% of total mix for Test and Measurement? Just trying to figure out as we get through some of the soft level and auto CapEx, what the recovery path might look like as we get through 2025 and into 2026.

Speaker 1

I characterize automotive as total mix, maybe in the 5% range.

Speaker 0

That's total company.

Speaker 1

Yes. Yes.

Speaker 0

Okay, thank you.

Speaker 1

Thank you. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor back over to Ms. Newcombe for closing comments. Thank you for being with us today. I'd like to wrap up our call with a few closing remarks. While public for only a short time, over the last several years we've undertaken deliberate actions to create a streamlined portfolio, leveraging RBS to compete across businesses with stronghold positions and in secular high growth vectors. We continue to expand our addressable markets with new product introductions. Our total revenue and high growth vectors is now a greater share of our portfolio. Despite the slower recovery we are seeing in Test and Measurement, we are encouraged by the sequential improvement and the exciting product launch schedule we have lined up.

We expect RBS to continue to serve as a competitive advantage, enabling customer innovation and operating efficiencies, ultimately showing up in our financial performance. We have consistently demonstrated our ability to profitably evolve our portfolio to deliver in any environment. One of our greatest strengths is the enduring passion and commitment of our teams who take great pride in how they show up with a deep belief in winning as one team and unlocking our growth potential. My new leadership team is fully in place and includes leaders with significant experience across industry leading global companies as well as operating company presidents with a consistent track record of operating rigor and execution. As we continue to navigate the dynamic environment, we are resolute in our commitment to supporting our customers, inspiring employees and delivering for our shareholders. We have a relentless focus on execution and a proven playbook in RBS.

We will continue to identify opportunities to extend our leadership positions in the markets we serve while protecting our earnings and free cash flow resiliency. Thank you for joining. I hope you all have a great day. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines or log off the webcast at this time and enjoy the rest of your day.