Honeywell International Inc. (HON) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Honeywell Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Mark Macaluso, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Honeywell Technology's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Honeywell Technology's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vimal Kapur; and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Mike Stepniak. This webcast and the presentation materials, including non-GAAP reconciliations, are available on our Investor Relations website. From time to time, we post new information on the Investor Relations website that may be of interest or material to our investors. Our discussion today will include forward-looking statements that are based on our best view of the world and of our businesses as we see them today, and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including those described in our recent SEC filings. This morning, we will review financial results for Honeywell Technologies for the second quarter of 2026 and discuss our updated guidance. And as always, we'll leave time for your questions at the end. I would also like to take a moment to remind our audience that the 2026 results and guidance we will present today exclude results from Honeywell Aerospace following the spin-off on June 29. Additionally, our guidance reflects both the completion of the Johnson Matthey's Catalyst Technologies acquisition as of July 17 as well as the anticipated closures of the productivity and warehouse divestitures, which we now expect by early August. Pension income and the results of Quantinuum have also been removed from our adjusted results in all prior and future periods. Finally, adjusted EPS for Honeywell Technologies now reflects the impact of the 1-for-2 reverse stock split. You'll find a summary of these changes on Slide 3. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Vimal, who will begin on Slide 4.

Thank you, Mark, and good morning. The second quarter marked an important milestone for Honeywell Technologies as we began our next chapter as a pure-play automation company. At Investor Day, we laid out our go-forward strategy of growing and monetizing our installed base through outcome-based services, software and new product innovation. We also introduced long-term targets for Honeywell Technologies, which will be our road map for the next 3-plus years. And as you can see, we are laying the foundation today to deliver on our commitments. Our results this quarter have demonstrated the strength of the new Honeywell Technologies portfolio. We delivered 4% organic sales growth driven by continued strength in Building Automation and a better-than-anticipated performance in both Process Automation and Technology and Industrial Automation businesses. Orders grew 16% organically with broad-based demand across all segments, resulting in 9% increase in ending backlog. Notably, short-cycle orders grew double digit across all segments. In PA&T, orders were up 24% organically, led by roughly 5% orders growth in Process Technologies, providing even greater confidence in their expected second half growth inflection. We also expanded segment margin by 100 basis points, overcoming significant cost inflation headwinds and unfavorable mix through a combination of productivity and volume leverage. This drove earnings in the second quarter above our expectation from early June with increased confidence heading into the second half of the year. As a result today, we are raising our full year outlook for organic growth, segment margin and adjusted earnings per share. We continue to expect a sharp growth inflection in Process Automation and Technology and continued momentum in Industrial Automation in the second half of 2026. Combined with the sustained outperformance in Building Automation, we now expect to grow 4% to 6% organically in second half of the year, in line with our long-term targets. We're also raising our adjusted EPS outlook by $0.10 at the midpoint, which reflects the second quarter outperformance and improved second half outlook that is more than offsetting the loss of income from the earlier-than-anticipated close of the 2 divestitures. We also took important action this quarter to strengthen the portfolio to support long-term growth. On the portfolio, we closed the acquisition of Johnson Matthey's Catalyst Technologies business on July 17. With this business, we add a differentiated technology portfolio that will expand our installed base and strengthen PA&T's portfolio across refining, petrochemicals and renewable fuels. Ken and his leadership team are already fully engaged with our new colleagues, meeting with over 90% of employees globally at key sites in just the first week. They have been involved in all aspects of the transaction and are prepared to hit the ground running to deliver for our customers and our shareowners. I could not be more excited to welcome the JM Catalyst Technologies team to Honeywell Technologies. As part of the final stage of our portfolio transformation, we completed the separation of Honeywell Aerospace and also supported the Quantinuum team in their successful initial public offering in June. On Quantinuum, we expect to provide more color on our plans of our 47% ownership stake by early next year. We remain strong supporters of Raj and his team and are excited to be shareholders in such groundbreaking quantum computing company. Thanks to the great work of our team, we also now expect to close the divestitures of both Productivity Solutions and Services and Warehouse and Workflow Solutions business by early August. This is approximately 2 months ahead of our initial planning assumption, which has reduced our 2026 revenue expectation by approximately $400 million. We're also confident this will drive greater focus and further simplification of Industrial Automation portfolio, which is already beginning to see improved financial performance. We wish both these businesses and their team continued success as they embark upon next chapter. Our transformed and simplified portfolio is well positioned to outperform with momentum in both long-term and short-cycle orders, ramping activity and pipeline and meaningful macro tailwinds for the next several years. Let's turn to Slide 5 to recap our recent Investor Day, where I had the pleasure of spending time with many of you in New York City last month. On June 11, we hosted investors, sell-side analysts, media and others at our Investor Day for the new Honeywell Technologies. We kicked off the day laying out our revamp and focused strategy that will drive value-enhancing solution for customers and drive outperformance in our focus markets. Each business leader walked through their differentiated offering, connected strategy, growth framework and 3-year targets. Guests also heard directly from our leading customers and partners, including Exxon, Dangote, Google, Equinix, Duke Energy and others about the differentiated outcome we are delivering and the long-standing relationship we have built over many decades. My team and I are highly confident in our ability to deliver on our 3-year commitments. We have a strong position in key end markets, differentiated technologies, a global footprint and a clear competitive advantage in high-growth verticals. Our team is comprised of Honeywell veterans, talented new additions and even some folks that rejoined us after successful carriers elsewhere. All of this, coupled with a proven Honeywell Technologies accelerator operating system positions us for a new chapter of growth and profitability as Honeywell Technologies. The event concluded with us delivering our new 3-year target, which you can see on Slide 6. Over the last 3 years, we transformed our portfolio through acquisitions, spin-offs and divestitures into a pure-play automation company focused on innovating in mission-critical environments where uptime, safety, productivity and efficiency are paramount. This has set us up to deliver on these commitments. Our strategy focuses on 2 key pillars: growing our installed base and then monetizing this vast installed base through innovative software, services and outcome-based solutions. While maintaining our leading position in core verticals, we are also increasing our exposure to higher-growth verticals like data centers, LNG, grid infrastructure and life sciences as examples, which are all linked to compelling megatrends. Our projected top line growth and margin expansion is also underpinned by a more meaningful shift towards services and software annual recurring revenue. On margin, we have over 200 basis points of margin expansion coming quickly from stranded cost removal, portfolio actions in Industrial Automation and benefit of aerospace trademark agreement. On top of that, we expect to drive 60 basis points a year of operational margin expansion through price, improving mix, new product introduction and productivity. As you heard from our CFO in June, we are confident that the 24% target is achievable and provides meaningful upside as we execute our strategy. Collectively, this will drive approximately $12 of adjusted EPS, representing more than 10% growth annually. The important point here is that we will generate these returns right out of the gate given all the actions we took to prepare the organization ahead of aerospace spin. And finally, on cash, we expect to improve our conversion to over 90% and have line of sight already in the second half of this year to hitting 95%. I want to talk more about the acquisition of Johnson Matthey's Catalyst Technology business, which will become part of our Process Automation and Technology segment. This addition to Process Technology will unlock strategic growth by increasing our existing installed base and creating a more integrated offering across Catalysts and Process Technology. It also expands Honeywell UOP's capability across refining, petrochemicals and renewable fuels with complementary offerings and capability, which you can see on Slide 7. What makes this acquisition specifically attractive is its strategic fit with our existing business. We are already on many of the same customers with complementary process units, and the business perfectly aligns to our core verticals. The acquisition also enhances our end-to-end solutions by combining Catalyst process technology and digital capabilities powered by Honeywell Technologies Forge. We have clear visibility to both commercial and cost synergies and our long-term outlook for this business as part of Honeywell Technologies has not changed. Let's now turn to Slide 8 to discuss our orders trend in each business. As you can see, our orders growth has been accelerating across the company, driven by strong demand generation, NPI and continued share gains. This resulted in 16% organic orders growth in second quarter with broad-based growth across all short-cycle businesses, driving considerable momentum on the LTM basis as a result. PA&T had incredibly strong quarters of orders growing nearly 25%, leading to a book-to-bill for PA&T above 1.2. Our refreshed portfolio with the addition of JM's Catalyst Technology business is set up well to benefit from energy up cycle, particularly as customer CapEx forecast support the ongoing transition to LNG and renewable fuel as priority. Strength across both long and short-cycle orders growth, including increased pipeline activity from refurbishment and rebuilds and Middle East will provide meaningful macro tailwinds for the next several years. In Industrial Automation, we saw strong demand across Europe, Middle East and China. For the core business that remains after the divestitures, order grew 11% or 7% sequentially with Sensing and Industrial Measurement orders up over 20%. Pete and his team continue to execute the turnaround strategy in IA to win back share and grow the core business. Finally, in Building Automation, the team continues to drive innovative NPI that is driving share gain while growing our position in a high-growth vertical. This quarter, we drove over 50% orders growth and 30% organic sales growth in high-growth verticals while maintaining our strong position in the core with approximately 30% orders growth in our fire business. Orders in Middle East grew over 50% this quarter by our Process Technology business. Regarding the conflict, we are assuming the situation remains as it is today with no improvement from the current situation, but also no significant escalation in the war or further disruption to the supply chain. This is, of course, a very fluid situation, but our teams in the region have done a tremendous job, minimize impact to our business while ensuring our employees are safe, and we're able to continue to support our customers. Finally, book-to-bill for the total company was 1.1, and our ending backlog was up 9%. This and continued momentum we see in all segments supports 4% to 6% growth outlook in the second half and over medium term. It's been our pleasure speaking with you this morning, and let me now turn it over to Mike to discuss our second quarter results and 2026 outlook in more detail.

Thank you, Vimal, and good morning. In the second quarter, Honeywell Technologies delivered strong results that surpassed our expectations. Sales grew 4% organically, led by continued momentum in building automation and stronger-than-anticipated growth in Industrial Automation. Process Automation Technologies sales decreased 1% organically, but we're still materially ahead of our original outlook for the quarter. On a segment basis, Building Automation delivered 9% organic growth, driven by double-digit growth in products and continued strength in solutions. The teams drove double-digit growth in the fire and Services businesses, respectively, and we saw strength in all regions led by Asia Pacific, Middle East and Americas. All in, another strong quarter from Vimal and the Building Automation team. Industrial Automation sales were up 4% in the second quarter, exceeding our expectations led by strength in solutions. Products grew slightly with continued momentum in Sensing and Industrial Measurement, partially offset by utilities. The core Industrial Automation business, excluding planned divestiture, grew 2% organically in the second quarter. Finally, Process Automation Technologies sales declined just 1% organically in the second quarter, ahead of our prior expectations as the up cycle in energy end markets and activity in global projects begin to materialize. Projects grew 5%, driven by strength in gas, LNG and petrochemicals. This strength was offset by a 6% decline in aftermarket due primarily to a tough prior year comparison from a large catalyst shipment in the second quarter of 2025. Importantly, consistent with our messaging at the Investor Day, we expect a sharp inflection in growth in Process Automation Technology beginning in the third quarter, led by Process Technology and driven by backlog conversion and much stronger catalyst shipments. On profitability, segment profit increased 9%, while segment margin expanded 100 basis points to 19% with strong margin expansion in Building Automation and Industrial Automation. In addition to ongoing volume leverage and productivity actions, stranded cost removal continues to track ahead of plan. By segment, Building Automation segment margin expanded 90 basis points to 27.1% on volume leverage and price, which was partially offset by inflation. Segment margin in Industrial Automation also expanded 90 basis points to 17.2% as pricing and productivity actions more than offset inflation and unfavorable mix. In Process Automation Technologies segment, margin contracted 180 basis points to 22.1%, largely driven by unfavorable mix from lower catalyst volumes as expected. This, however, was also ahead of our original margin outlook for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per share of $1.95 was up 10%, driven primarily by higher segment profit. We drove lower net interest expense stemming from debt paydown, which was partially offset by higher repositioning costs. And as we previewed in the first quarter, a higher adjusted effective tax rate drove a $0.16 headwind, which we overcame with stronger operational performance. You will find additional information on the segment performance in the appendix of our presentation. Rounding out the results, free cash flow grew considerably this quarter, both year-over-year and sequentially to roughly $0.5 billion. This was principally driven by higher income as well as improvements in working capital, which more than offset ongoing collection headwinds in the Middle East. This quarter, we deployed $1 billion of capital through roughly $800 million of dividends and roughly $200 million in high-value capital expenditures. Year-to-date, we have deployed over $2.8 billion in capital to repurchase our own shares, pay dividends and invest in future growth. Let's now move to Slide 10 to quickly discuss the second quarter adjusted EPS bridge. As you can see, we delivered high-quality results in the second quarter. Strong segment profit growth, including elimination of stranded costs, lower below-the-line expenses due to interest expense and lower share count allowed us to overcome the higher tax rate. Excluding the tax headwind, earnings would have been up 20%. Let's turn to Slide 11 to discuss our updated 2026 guidance. Today, we're increasing our organic sales growth outlook to 3% to 4% for the year, up from previous guidance of 2% to 3% and now expect the second half to grow 4% to 6% versus 3% to 5% previously. Building Automation continues to execute well, leading to a mid-single-digit plus organic growth outlook, supported by incredibly strong orders growth in the second quarter, particularly in our focus verticals, including health care, hospitality and data centers. We expect Process Automation technology growth to accelerate to high single digits in the second half as global energy projects resume, backlog conversion ramps and catalyst shipment volumes increase significantly. Finally, Industrial Automation growth will continue in the second half, driven by resilient short-cycle demand for industrial measurement and sensing, continued growth in Europe and China and strengthening Americas demand. As a result of the momentum in Process Automation Technology and Industrial Automation, we're increasing our full year organic growth expectations for both businesses from roughly flat to up low single digits for the full year, a meaningful improvement from our original expectations coming into the year. We now expect full year segment margin expansion of 250 to 290 basis points, up 25 basis points at the midpoint from the previous guidance. This reflects the outperformance in the second quarter in Process Automation Technology and Industrial Automation, significant progress on stranded cost elimination and accretion related to the accelerated timing of PSS and WWS divestitures. Importantly, we expect Honeywell Technologies will exit the year above 22% segment margin. We now expect full year adjusted earnings per share of $8.20 at the midpoint or up approximately 27% versus prior year and up from our previous midpoint of $8.10. Finally, we continue to expect free cash flow of roughly $2 billion in 2026, with the majority of this coming in during the second half and approximately 95% conversion rate. You can find additional information on 2026 outlook in the appendix of our presentation, which includes estimates for corporate and other below-the-line items. On Page 12, you will find the bridge from our June 8 guidance call to today's update. As you can see, we expect full year adjusted earnings per share will be $8.20 at the midpoint, up from our previous midpoint of $8.10. Let me now turn the call back to Vimal to wrap up before Q&A.

Thanks, Mike. We are pleased with Honeywell Technologies second quarter results, which enabled us to increase our 2026 outlooks across all key metrics. We successfully navigated an uncertain geopolitical backdrop with the strength of our resilient business model and the rigor of our Honeywell Technologies Accelerator operating system. With our portfolio transformation complete, our simplified pure-play automation portfolio is well positioned to benefit from long-term macro tailwinds, including the prolification of AI, increasing global energy demand and an aging population and increased consumption. This, combined with our focus on increasing exposure on higher-growth verticals, driving annual recurring revenue growth from outcome-based services and software and maintaining our innovation engine will enable us to achieve double-digit annual adjusted EPS growth at greater than 90% free cash flow conversion. We laid our 3-year targets for new business and I look forward to updating you on our progress to achieving them in coming quarters. Today is only the beginning of that journey, and I'm pleased with how we have started, but we have considerably more work and opportunity ahead of us. With that, Mark, let's take the questions.

Vimal, Mike and I are now available to answer your questions. We ask that in the queue. Operator, please open the line for Q&A.

I'd just like to say congrats to Vimal and the whole leadership team on the successful spins. You got them all done on time. It was well communicated, and I do like seeing that boost to guidance here right out of the block. So congrats.

Thank you, Deane.

Since it is so topical, I'd like to circle back on the Middle East impacts. I mean you still had double-digit orders. So you still have got momentum there. Just I'm interested about the idea that you've got some collection issues. Is there any risk of like force majeure here and any kind of disruptions like that?

I would say, Deane, the Middle East is the way we have guided the second half, it is a normal which exists today, as we said in our prepared remarks, how things have shaped up over the last 4, 5 months, we have understood the dynamics on the ground. We did lose some revenue in Q1 and Q2 as we had guided. But now we are assuming our future state is built upon how the conditions prevail today unless things change dramatically. To your question, we observed some collection issues in pockets. They are modest. They are not material, but we have taken a prudent decision to address the customer set where we have limited risk. But we don't have any risk to your point of any major disputes and things of that nature. We think business is in good shape. As an example, 50% orders growth in Q2 primarily driven by a few big deals in our Process Technology business, refurbishment, which are occurring there, that certainly is providing us some tailwinds. But overall, we believe that we are well positioned. And as this region invests more, as the things settle, mostly in transportation and logistics-related investments and some resiliency will benefit from that.

And Deane, I might just add that majority of our collection issues happened in March and April in Middle East. That started to normalize. We still expect the revenue in Middle East to be about high single digits this year and orders should be about 40%. So we look really forward to seeing Middle East perform in the second half and next year.

Good to hear. And then just as a follow-up, and congrats on getting the Johnson Matthey deal closed. Can you talk about the implications because you did renegotiate a lower price. Just what were the circumstances there and the conditions that you got the lower price? And what are the plans, near-term plans for integration?

Yes. We are excited about having this business, and it's -- the business is really built upon our fundamental belief that the world needs more energy and energy mix will change. Those are the fundamental principles that was the reason behind doing 2 acquisitions in LNG and that the reason behind doing the JM acquisition, primarily, we believe that the world will need more investment in petrochemicals and renewable fuels and the JM acquisition strengthens our portfolio around that. We also get more installed base and our ability to serve it. The negotiations are just part of the normal course in my view, as any deal transaction occurs. There are a few milestones. And depending on how the business was trended, we work with our counterparty to look at how we should value the business. So I don't want to dwell a lot upon that. But we remain excited about how we got the deal done at about 13x EBITDA with cost synergies, no sales synergies. And you will agree with me that we have acquired this business for commercial synergies at the heart of it. But we're not going to count on that in our early innings, but we'll build upon it.

And then I would just add that just -- I think we got the business at the bottom. And I would say that the second half looks good. Even in our own catalyst business, the second half is sequentially versus first half up 25%, 30%. So we look forward to getting our hands on this business.

And Deane, congratulations on the retirement, and you should have good next innings, and we will stay connected.

Appreciate it. I wish you all the best. .

So Mike, it's obviously good news to see the guidance increasing. You did indicate that in June that there was scope for upside. But I'm curious if there's anything you saw in June, July to give you more confidence? Just any color in terms of how we exited 2Q entered 3Q on your markets? And then within that discussion, maybe just touch on IA. It sounds like the upside came outside the U.S. So I'd be curious if you're seeing any momentum in the U.S.

Sure. Look, I would say is just launching the new company here today, what we saw in the second quarter, we feel extremely, I would say, confident in the second half. As you can -- as you saw, orders across the board were strong. Every business printed double-digit short-cycle orders in the second quarter, which gives us a lot of confidence in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. And for IA, I would say that the growth and the strength is broad-based, including in China and Europe. And U.S. is recovering nicely as well and the business benefiting from onshoring. So I would say across the board, we see a really good outlook for the second half. We raised the guidance, as you saw, but I also think there is more room as we're going to go into the third quarter and fourth quarter to beat even the raised guidance.

Yes. Only thing I'll add, Nigel, is that I think Pete and his team are executing quicker than we anticipated how the business recovery will occur. And as we reported, the orders growth for Industrial Automation business is about 10%, which signals our performance in the second half. We are -- we have the right momentum, and that was the reason behind raising the guide of the business to low single digit in the second half.

And I'm confident that Pete will deliver a 22% margin rate in the fourth quarter. So the team has worked on it for a long time, and we have a really good line of sight here.

Mike, that's a great segue to my follow-up, which is the 2 points of sequential acceleration -- 2 points of expansion in segment margin from 3Q to 4Q. There's a lot going on here with portfolio, the sale of the warehouse PSS businesses and then stranded costs tapering off in the back half of the year. But I'm just wondering if you maybe just unpack that 2 points of expansion from 3Q to 4Q for us.

Yes, sure. Nigel, it's Mark. Just a couple of things. I think it's pretty broad-based. I mean BA continues to drive strong volume leverage and productivity. So they'll, 3Q to 4Q, they'll be up. As Mike mentioned, IA continues to take a considerable step up, including in 4Q. And then PA&T will continue to get better, particularly as the growth resumes and then also we start to see a little bit more mix towards catalyst. So I would say, broadly speaking, it's really in all segments, but just quarter-to-quarter, probably the largest increase in IA.

Yes. And I would just add that we talked about it, I think, at the initial of the year and then the Investor Day, about half of the margin expansion is operational and half of it is, I would say, structural given the portfolio actions. As we stand today, I see the team is driving operationally 100, 120 bps of margin expansion.

I was on mute. My apologies. Anyways, I'll start over again. I will also echo congrats to Deane. We'll miss having Deane around. He's been a great colleague for a lot of years. So we'll miss him, too. Guys, a couple just smaller things here. One, when you look at your M&A pipeline, is it kind of evenly split between your segments? Are there particular segments where you think you're more likely to over-index? Just a little bit color there, please.

Sure. So Scott, I would say, think of M&A in 3 distinct categories, how we're looking at it. The highest priority is strengthening our industrial automation, sensing and measurement portfolio. I and Pete are looking at a variety of options. So that remains our first priority, our priority #1. Second bucket is, as we're thinking about accelerating our business in some of the higher-growth verticals, whose impact we can clearly see in our orders growth rate, we are getting more and more convicted that's the right strategy for Honeywell. So how can we add some portfolio additions in some of these end markets to further accelerate our growth. So we have identified those 8 high-growth markets. So looking at M&A opportunity. In the end, we'll acquire a product line only like we acquired 2 businesses in LNG, for example. So what can we do more on same lines in verticals like hospitality and semiconductor, micro grid, et cetera. So they're broad-based. And finally, tuck-in acquisition on the tech side. We always have looked at frontier technologies, a few in fire detection, a few on cybersecurity. So we'll keep looking at -- keep an eye on those. Those are much smaller, of course, but they do propel our organic growth.

Okay. That's helpful. And guys, can you just help us kind of size or at least help us understand the opportunity within the data center? I mean it's pretty easy to picture the fire and security stuff, but can you walk us through kind of the longer list of SKUs and opportunity that you have there?

Yes. So I would say that we are looking at data center in 2 dimensions. One is the growth beyond U.S. We can clearly observe the build-out of data center has now grown beyond U.S., across Europe, across Asia, and we have a better position as a company globally given Honeywell's brand and participation globally. So that certainly is a tailwind for us. So certainly, that's benefiting us. But we are also observing now more data centers putting on-site power generation, which allows our process automation business to participate in data centers to automate the utilities and energy storage on location, the gas coming in there for pipeline for those power plants. So we can clearly see that as a new business opportunity. None of that is into our orders even yet, but we have multiple proposals by process automation team apart from the building automation, which you mentioned very correctly, has benefited a lot from fire detection, security and building management system, which goes into data center. Finally, I would also say the third leg for the stool for Honeywell emerging longer term is liquid cooling. Sensing required in liquid cooling is a good play for us. Our sensors are required as a critical input for liquid cooling. So all those OEs are actively working with us to develop new strategies on how they're going to execute the liquid cooling. So all things being equal, we will continue to expand our play in data center from almost nothing 3, 4 years back to -- that's 5% of the building automation business. And I expect that we will be at a higher number across Honeywell as the time progresses.

Congratulations. Just a question. Did I hear right? I apologize. You mentioned 40% order growth. What was that number related? Was that on Process Automation in the second half? Or was it referred to, I apologize?

No. What I said that -- I think what I said on the catalyst, the second half versus first half will be -- should be up 25% to 30% on that framework. Our orders for the quarter were up 16%.

Okay. Apologies. Can you talk about -- sorry.

No, I was just going to add the orders in Process Automation Technology were up 24% for the quarter.

Okay. Can you -- you sort of alluded to seeing orders the exposure to the Middle East? And how soon can you see that show up, a, in orders and b, in your actual work?

Yes. So Andrew, the strength in orders for second quarter in Process Automation Technology was -- the biggest enabler was LNG demand in globally. U.S., of course, being the big one, but also outside U.S. And some of the big deals in LNG is a big driver for orders growth in the Process segment. To your question, do we see diversification of investment beyond Middle East due to the conflict? Answer is yes. We absolutely are seeing projects coming in. We have a large project in Africa. We are actively working. Some of it has been booked. Some booking will occur in the technology side of the process business. So we see investments there. And we also see investments happening in Asia for the downstream refining petrochemical side because I think as we all observed, there was a very high price for fuels, 200%, 300% cost up for diesel and jet fuel. So there are customers and countries looking at more domestic production for fuels as well as downstream petrochemical products there. So overall, the process market will see more capital investment to derisk the Middle East conflict situation. That's our forecast.

And then maybe can you talk about industrial automation, just maybe you can give some KPIs on improving performance, I don't know, sort of on-time delivery. Anything you want to share how you're moving along in improving execution in this segment driving this improvement?

Yes. So I would say that the KPIs we are looking at it is, first, of course, how our delivery performance is improving. It's a very channel-driven business. So the sensitivity to the delivery performance is high. We're working towards high 80s percent performance as we progress through the course of the year, and that's our trend line. Pete mentioned in the call at the start of the year, we were in mid-40s, and we are trending from 40% towards 80% as we speak at this point of time. The other critical KPI for us is performance on new products. We have launched several new products end of last year, early this year, and they are becoming an enabler for our growth as evidenced by our orders growth rate of 10% in Q2. We do expect continued strength in our orders rate in the segment for the second half of the year. So the actions we are taking on innovation, on operational performance is the foundation of how this business is going to turn around. And we expect the improvement trend will continue from no growth to low single-digit growth to, at some point, we'll turn the business into a mid-single-digit grower.

Just wanted to ask on BA continues to show really nice high single-digit growth and then orders up 13% in 2Q. It just feels to me that, that high single digits should be sustainable into the second half, keeping all of that in mind. Would you disagree with that for any reason? And then why wouldn't this -- if orders continue to hold up, like why couldn't we see high single-digit growth proceed into 2027?

Yes. Nicole, the evidence suggests you're right, 7 quarters in a row, high single, survive it should become more single. There is no real logic. We are -- as being a new company, we are printing our new forecast. So obviously, our aspiration is meet or beat it. So there is a level of prudence, which we have used in our guide. But fundamentally, the strategy of the business is pivot towards high-growth verticals. We clearly see tailwinds in data center, hospitality and health care. They are certainly driving a lot more orders growth and pivoting towards more and more acceleration of the base business on the strength of new products. In fact, we're going to launch even more new products as we progress in the second half. So yes, fundamentally, there is no logic, but we are always cautious given competition can respond to some of our actions over the last 2 years, and we need to be cautious. But I remain optimistic to surprise everybody on the performance of the business in the second half.

Awesome. We all love beats and raises. Okay. And then I guess maybe on stranded costs, you guys referred to making more progress than expected. Can you just put a finer point on that with respect to any changes in the stranded cost reduction time line versus what we got at the Investor Day or in the periods before?

Sure. So stranded cost is progressing extremely well. We -- at the Investor Day, I think we said something around $85 million of stranded costs at year-end. This is about $20 million better right now. So we should enter 2027 with about $60 million, $65 million of stranded costs that we'll proceed to eliminate early next year. So it's a good story. It's incrementally better, about $20 million to what we talked about.

Just coming back to Johnson Matthey, Vimal, maybe 2 questions. One, as you looked at that business over time, has it sales been relatively synchronous with what goes on at UOP? In other words, I'm wondering if this is more of the same kind of quarter-to-quarter volatility or there's sort of differences in timing and what they do versus what you do that possibly tick some of this quarterly volatility out of your catalyst sales.

Yes, I would say that their licensing technologies are different from UOP. That's the reason we acquired the business because of the complementarity of the technology. So given the differences they have, they are more into spaces like hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, where we don't have capability. It's not one-to-one comparison because the end markets they serve are different from the end markets UOP serve, which is more refining, petrochemicals and LNG. So those comps are not comparable. There is a variation between that. But on the catalyst side, I would say trends are very convergent. I mean, each one of us have product lines and customer base. So they are not wide differences in the catalyst performance. But the technology licensing, there are differences.

And as you've noted, you don't want to include revenue synergies in your outlook, but maybe just a little color on where you get after those, how quickly you might be able to capture some of those?

Yes. I think they are driven by the combined offerings of Johnson Matthey and our process technology business solves customer problems better. And that's the Chart 7, if you see in our deck there. We, for example, can combine our capabilities in area like hydrogen. If you see, there is a capability which Johnson Matthey bring in for production of -- on-purpose production of hydrogen. We have capability on CO2 elimination in that. So that produces low-carbon hydrogen. So that's an example. There are examples in sustainable aviation fuel, complementary technology on what Johnson Matthey brings on table versus what we built. So combining the 2 technology improves our proposition. And there are similar example on the gas processing side in terms of the core technology, which MCT business brings in versus what bring in. And that's the whole thesis here that 1 plus 1 here is equal to 4. And because we are able to build a higher proposition, we will be able to get better win rates in the market because so far, we were not able to do it. They are 2 different companies. Customers can't buy this combined proposition. They have to sign 2 agreements, which is complicated. But now with a single umbrella and with our reputation in technology licensing business, we expect that to bring synergies. But we also expect synergies through 2 more create areas, which brings Honeywell value proposition. First is connecting Johnson Matthey's very large installed base and building services and software portfolio. This is our core. We are an automation company. We know how to do it. And the second, our Process Automation business will benefit by installed base of Johnson Matthey and understanding that customer relationship where it may not be present gives us additional door openers by which we can create opportunity for our process automation business. So a variety of opportunities here. We're extremely excited. And that's why I mentioned, Jeff, that even though right now, the headline number is 13x EBITDA based on 2027 earnings because that's the first year we'll fully own the business, but that's purely cost synergy based. We haven't acquired the business for cost synergies. We have acquired it to add value through sales synergies. So I'm very, very confident that we are going to print a much better number when we are done with everything in terms of opportunities here.

So I wanted to double-click a little bit on the Middle East, right? So your orders were up over 50% this quarter. I'm just curious like what you're seeing is some of the disruption over there actually helping? And then maybe conversely, I know that you guys called out the large catalyst shipment a year ago, a tough comp on the aftermarket business, but aftermarket was down. Are you impacted at all from an aftermarket perspective in the region? Just any color around both would be helpful.

So as I mentioned, Joe, the things are settling. I would say that initial months of the conflict, April, March, April was more where we lost revenue. It's like anything new, we did not know how to ship. A lot of customer sites were closed, and we were not able to perform our service contracts, et cetera. So after losing some revenue in Q1 and Q2, things have normalized, and we don't expect from -- our current revenue forecast does assume some modest loss of revenue, but not material in bigger scheme of things. So as we are observing today, I think the business activity is more resumed to normal. We do see some big orders. That was the reason one of the big deals we got for -- in Process Technology business was in Middle East for LNG facilities. So their investment cycle back. We also see customers looking at ways and means for improving more resiliency, how can they run their operation in spite of this? What can we do in terms of things like remote operations, more digitization and operations so that they can take countermeasures -- and then finally, early days, but we clearly see investments in Middle East pivoting towards logistics infrastructure, so pipeline terminals, different way of shipping product as we all read and observe from the media. So clearly, there is a direction towards that. So all in, I would say the things have settled. Hopefully, no worse happens from where we are today. And we see investment becoming more and more normalized and some large projects coming back into the pipeline.

Got it. That's helpful, Vimal. And then I guess just maybe a broader question on the guidance, the 4% to 6% baked into the second half of the year. Obviously, the trailing 12-month orders up double digits is very supportive of that guide. It does sound like there's probably maybe some conservatism into the second half as well. But I guess the question I have is how much of what you're seeing from an order perspective today is maybe even like longer cycle and is already starting to help support a pretty good outlook for 2027 as well?

I would say it's both. And I think versus what we guided at the Investor Day for 2027 and looking where we're entering the second half and all things are progressing given the strength across the board in the short cycle and then the continued orders on the long cycle, you're right, our 2027 incrementally is looking stronger versus when we talked even last month. So we feel really good about the prospects for next year.

And what I will add, Joe, is that orders growth is on the strength of our strategy of pivoting more and more towards high-growth verticals, which we talked about during our Investor Day. So Building Automation is seeing 13% orders growth in last quarter. A lot of that came from data center, hospitality and health care process got a lot of bit growth from LNG and low-carbon energy or renewable fuels, which we called out as high-growth verticals. And in Industrial Automation, we saw a lot of growth in semiconductor fabs. So exactly the -- it's not only underrated, that narrative is turning into actual reality. And we expect to maintain this momentum, which then becomes basis for our second half guide and then, of course, continue that in 2027.

Mike, can you comment on price versus cost? As you know, commodity inflation is obviously all over the place, but your margin that you said is trending a little better than expectations. So maybe just talk about what you're seeing and what, if any updated thoughts you have for price versus cost in the second half of '26.

Sure. So I think we talked about it earlier in the year, and we thought that inflation was going to be persistent, and that's what we continue to see going into the second half. Price was about 3.5%, 3.7% for the second quarter. I think looking at the second half, it will be around 4%, and that's where we see inflation to be. So essentially, we're able to cover inflation with price, but inflation is stubborn. We see a lot of inflation in electronics, memory, obviously, copper, and we also see inflation in labor. So I think this is the environment we're in. We'll continue to price at that level and continue to manage things with our customers. But yes, I would say, generally, things are very similar to what we assumed going into the end of the second quarter. I would say a lot of the margin expansion you see here from us is not really driven by price cost, but it's really by our productivity, stranded cost takeout and the teams just being able to get a much better leverage on cost and NPI introductions.

That's helpful. And then maybe just going back to core Industrial Automation. You mentioned improvement in the product side of the business would lead to growth in the second half, which I think is a bit different from what you recorded in Q2 were solutions-led growth. So I assume that's just continued recovery in short-cycle demand that you're seeing and maybe NPI self-help tailwind kicking in a little bit more. But maybe you could elaborate on that dynamic.

Yes. So the solutions side of the business is a smaller component, but it's growing very nicely for us. And that's basically aftermarket services on our product installed base. Specifically, if you look at our gas detection side of the house of the business in Industrial Automation, we have a very large installed base, and that service very well through our traditional way of service contracts and others. So that's growing extremely well. And the growth of the business, as I mentioned, is on the basis of our improved operational performance so that customers have more trust in giving us more business. also new products, which are creating more differentiation for us. And certainly, on the top line basis, as Mike mentioned, the pricing is certainly some help, given the high inflation prevailing across all segments in Honeywell.

And I'll just add also that part of the growth in solutions 2Q was related to Intelligrated. So we have a little bit of that, that obviously won't continue post the divestiture. So you should think about the core IA business growing sort of in the low single-digit range, call it 2% or so exiting as a kind of a start path for post divestiture world.

I wondered if you could just elaborate a little bit more on the 15% growth in software ARR. Is there anything in particular driving that strength? And then a couple of housekeeping questions, if you could. I think you've raised the guidance on repositioning costs, and they were a little bit higher in the quarter than I had anticipated. So I'm just wondering if you can give us a sense for what's driving that and whether that perhaps brings forward some costs that might otherwise have fallen next year? And then I wondered if you could just give us a sense of the magnitude of the impact in the quarter from Catalyst volumes being down on the margin and then the benefit that, that would have commensurately in the second half. Just to give us a sense, that would be great.

Okay. I'll answer the first portion on software and hand over to Mike. So we do expect our ARR growth to be in the -- about 15% for 2026. Of course, the year is still 6 months to go, so I can't really give you a precise number, but we are working towards that goal and won't be substantially different towards that. What is driving it is your question? Two things. First is our existing offering is penetrating more. So sell existing offer to more new customers. We're seeing a lot of strength that across the board, both on the building and process automation side because our offerings are getting more and more market acceptance. And the second is launching new offerings. We continue to have new offerings on our Forge platform aligned with the customer needs. and that continues to create more pipeline so that 2027, we also need to deliver the 15% rubric there. So we just need more products towards that. So fundamentally, we remain bullish on performance of our Forge-based strategy and that becoming an important part of our earnings algorithm moving forward.

And on the repositioning, we decided to consolidate footprint within our process business in the second quarter. So that's why you saw the spike in the repositioning. We're estimating repositioning right now for the year around that $100 million, $110 million. And I think that's what you should see. We -- that repositioning helped us to get some benefits in the second half and next year as far as depreciation and other things as far as how we absorb the footprint from an ISC standpoint. So net-net, I think it will be positive. It will be a pretty fairly quick payback for us on this repositioning. Yes.

And on the question of Catalyst, I think the second half volume of Catalyst is more normalized versus first half. First half, we had said that right at the earnings guide during January time frame. That we will see pressure on the volumes of Catalysts and it occurred that way. But now we see things normalize like a normal year. So the second half volumes are way greater than the first half. . On the margin side of Catalyst, there are basically 2 types of catalysts we sell. One in which we compete with rest of our peers, and therefore, pricing is on a market line basis. And the second type of catalyst where we have unique intellectual property. So our ability to get better margins is more superior than that. So in a given quarter, the mix of that really drives the net margin of catalysts. Sometimes you can sell some of this unique IP catalysts, a lot more. Therefore, our margins are very favorable. Sometimes that happens in the front end of the year, and that is not forecastable easily because that's driven by the actual consumption based upon the plant conditions. You run plant really very hard, you need more catalysts. If you run at a lower capacity and the catalyst runs longer. So there is a variability on when that occurs, which creates these variations on the margin and process technology on a quarter-on-quarter basis. But on a yearly basis, the margins are very predictable. They are they are more linear on an annualized basis and less linear within a quarter.

I also wanted to ask about the Middle East. I think you guys said the full year up high single digits. I presume the back half is even stronger. And I appreciate that activity has stabilized. But the outlook for you guys seems a lot more constructive relative to broader U.S. industrials in the region. So I guess my question is, is there something specific about what you guys are doing there to support volumes? Or is there something specific about the products or the markets served that is allowing you guys to show that kind of growth, which is -- and still, which is a tough situation over there?

I think it's -- I mean, at the heart of it is our portfolio. If you see Honeywell portfolio is big in building automation and process automation. And if you look at Middle East market, that's what the market is all about. It's a big energy market. And we have a leading position with our Process Technology segment and Process Automation segment. So clearly, we serve all countries for that. And then it's a big infrastructure market in which there's a built-out of different type of infrastructure, be it hospitality, be it health care systems, airports, et cetera, and building automation business does extremely well in those circumstances. I think what also separates us out is heavily localized model. We are 1 of the most localized company in Middle East for decades. We did not evacuate even 1 person during this conflict, not even a single person. All our people are on ground because they're all local. So we didn't have to do any big move out. So I think a combination of our portfolio and where customers are investing, therefore, and our portfolio is favorable towards that, which will make a distinction between us and other industrials and on heavily localized footprint puts us in a more favorable position probably compared to our peers.

Vimal, really appreciate that. And then maybe just following up on M&A. You signaled willingness to do M&A. Do you think the -- is there a balance sheet and maybe bandwidth capacity for deals of material size in the back half of 2016? Or is this more '27 and beyond maybe after monetization of Quantinuum, which just gives you guys even more dry powder?

So '26, we are very focused to retire our debt. We have committed that, and we will absolutely execute on it. So I would say the M&A activity should be previewed more in the lens of 2027 onwards. These things take time, but we're actively working on pipeline. I would say the Honeywell balance sheet of its own have strength for the deal size, what we mentioned during Investor Day, $1 billion to $5 billion enterprise value. The continuum demonetization will give us additional tailwind should we need it, and we'll plan it appropriately. But overall, we will continue to upgrade our portfolio should the right opportunity exist. But all our earnings forecast of $12 by 2029 is based upon organic growth. There's not even single M&A assumed in that because we all know that's unpredictable, and we'll see what comes on our way.

Just a follow up on some of the process discussion. It's encouraging to see that LNG activity pick up. Can you just reiterate that time line for conversion of the LNG projects, would you say 6 to 12 months? Or is it multiyear?

Multiyear, this is -- for us to build our proprietary equipment. In LNG, we have little distinction in our business model. Typically, we license our technology and customers will hire an EPC to build their plant. In case of LNG, we don't license technology. We give a proprietary equipment, heat exchanger. Typical delivery times are somewhere from 2 to 3 years window, depending upon the design. So you're talking about conversion. If we book something in 2024, they are converting today. And what we are booking in 2026 will convert 2028. But also don't forget, a lot of the revenue recognition is on POC basis, percentage completion. So you will do accrue some revenue. It's not 0, but then large revenue accretion happens mainly on a 2-year window.

I would just maybe add that we're sold out LNG for the next 3 years.

3 years, yes, we are totally sold out. So we have a lot of tailwinds in the business.

Yes. Okay. That's about what I figured. AI had not come up in the Q&A yet and everything pretty picked over. I wanted to ask a high-level one that sort of this notion of physical AI driving demand or interest in physical AI. I'm wondering if you're beginning to see that notion of AI driving incremental investments in hardware to get ahead of being able -- customers being able to monetize AI long term. Are you hearing that in your discussions? Are you seeing that maybe potentially in any of your orders across maybe industrial automation? Just maybe if you talk a little bit high level on what you're seeing there.

As I mentioned, we -- when we sell software on our Forge platform, that's all AI-based offerings. So clearly, 15% revenue growth. The base is small, I agree. We are going to inch from about $900 million to a little over $1 billion of ARR in that segment this year -- in that offering this year. That does pull in products. to a certain degree. And that's our core strategy. We continue to launch new offerings and drive demand to our products. So to me, AI is an integral part of our offering set. Honeywell believes that it's how the automation industry will move towards autonomy. Today, we have been selling automation since 1975. Our offerings are becoming more and more autonomous, semiautonomous to autonomous and the best way to measure our progress to see our ARR growth. I cannot give you any other indicator because they are all wrapped up into other products, and that's a direct measure, and that's the reason we are updating you on our ARR growth on the Forge on a periodic basis.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Kapur for any final comments.

Thank you very much, operator. I would like to thank our shareowners, our customers and all the Honeywell Technologies future shapers around the world for the strong second quarter results you delivered. We are confident on our path ahead and look forward to sharing our ongoing progress in the months to come. I hope all of you have a pleasant and restful summer. Thank you very much for joining us today, and we hope you have a great rest of your day.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.