Chris Farkas
Analyst · Stifel. Your line is open.
Yes, I think when you look at the Curtiss-Wright from an overall level, when you look at the absorption that we're getting on in sales this year, it's fairly in line with what we've said, we've experienced historically, which is in that 25% to 30% range. I think at the midpoint of our guide right now, we would say about 27% is incremental margin. But, as we've talked about a number of times throughout the year, we have so many great opportunities to invest not only through IR&D, but also contract R&D to continue this great growth trajectory that we're on. So, when you look at just the incremental IR&D year-over-year, that's $5 million. And as we look at the total R&D, which includes contract R&D, and we've talked a little bit about things like, advanced naval COTS and subsea pumps and the various development contracts that are going on within the A&I segment across the actuation, I mean, we're going to be spending in excess of $20 million of R&D this year, and that puts a little bit of pressure on margin. So, I think as we go to capture these great growth factors that we're on and push ourselves in our growth for the future, it's important to maintain that investment. And then beyond that, we have had a reduction in AP1000 year-over-year. We've talked about the profitability of that contract. I won't get into the numbers again on that, but that's a $20 million year-over-year headwind that we're facing within the naval and power segment. So, I think at 10 to 30 basis points year-over-year, if you pull back some of these items, there's a lot going on in the organization, not only from a pricing perspective and commercial to push forward commercial and commercial excellence, but also operational excellence to support that investment that we're doing for the future.