Veralto Stock

My name is Erica, and I will be your conference operator this morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Veralto Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Ryan Taylor, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Taylor. You may now begin.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on the call. With me today are Jennifer Honeycutt, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sameer Ralhan, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is simultaneously being webcast. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Investors section of our website later today under the heading Events and Presentations. A replay of this call will be available until November 9.

Yesterday, we issued our third quarter 2026 earnings news release, earnings presentation, prepared remarks and supplemental materials, including information required by the SEC relating to adjusted or non-GAAP financial measures. These materials are available in the Investors section of our website, veralto.com, under the heading Quarterly Earnings. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures are also provided in the appendix of the webcast slides. Unless otherwise noted, all references to variances are on a year-over-year basis.

During the call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jennifer.

Thanks, Ryan. I want to start by thanking our 17,000 associates for delivering an outstanding third quarter. We continue to build on our track record of meeting or exceeding our financial commitments through rigorous execution in support of our customers. In Q3, total sales grew 7.5% year-over-year, adjusted EPS increased 19.2%, and we generated robust free cash flow of $304 million. We delivered 5.1% core sales growth, led by Water Quality at 6.4% with PQI at 3.2%. Both segments accelerated core sales growth sequentially from Q2 to Q3.

Broadly speaking, demand for our products and services remains healthy across both segments. Relative to the fourth quarter, we expect core sales growth of 5.5% to 6.5% and approximately 5% growth from acquisitions, resulting in total sales growth of approximately 10% to 11%. Based on our third quarter performance, fourth quarter outlook and early gains from our cost optimization program, we raised our full year adjusted EPS guidance to $4.49 to $4.52 per share, representing 15% to 16% growth over the prior year.

Our 2026 guidance includes benefits from our disciplined capital deployment. Year-to-date, we've deployed more than $1.65 billion across 4 strategic bolt-on acquisitions and the repurchase of 2.4% of our outstanding shares. Our most recent acquisition of Cleanwater1 expands our capabilities in water treatment solutions, and I'm excited to welcome the Cleanwater1 associates to Veralto. With our strong balance sheet and robust cash generation, we have ample flexibility to act decisively on attractive new opportunities.

This year's performance and disciplined capital deployment reflects the stronger Veralto that we have been architecting since our spin-off in 2023. As we mark our third anniversary as an independent public company, I'm proud of how much we've accomplished and even more excited about our future. Over the course of the first 3 years, we have simplified VES and bolstered our execution, accelerated innovation and strengthened our portfolio through disciplined M&A.

These actions have accelerated our core sales growth, driven consistent margin expansion and double digit adjusted EPS growth. I'm incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished. With a stronger foundation, talented team and proven track record, we are excited about the opportunities ahead and confident in our ability to deliver sustainable long-term value for shareholders. That concludes my prepared remarks. And at this time, we will now take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from the line of Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research.

Jennifer. You're not inherently a project-related business. But when I look at these kind of improving trends in industrial water, some of the digital workflow stuff, maybe some things going on in the muni side. I'm just wondering if you could kind of comment on maybe the level of visibility or sort of confidence level in 2027. So maybe cheating here a little bit and trying to get an early 2027 preview from you.

Yes. Thanks for the question, Jeff. I think the way to think about our exposure here is we have a balanced portfolio in our water business between muni sales and industrial sales. In fact, 50% of our sales in Water Quality are into industrial applications. Insofar as your question around municipal spending, as a reminder, 60% of our revenue sits in recurring revenue given the razor blade business, we're essential to the customers' operations.

But when we do have equipment that gets sold as CapEx, it's part of the normal operational CapEx cycle. And that is to say that these tend to be facility upgrades or optimizations as opposed to infrastructure investments, which are more prone to federal funding fluctuations. So we see strong demand really for our solutions here relative to both the operating side of the business, whether that's our recurring revenue-based model or project-based business simply on the back of the secular drivers that we see, right, recycle, reclaim, severe weather events, water scarcity and so on. So we feel pretty good about ongoing demand here, and we'll keep you posted once we get to 2027.

And maybe just 1 on PQI. On that side of the equation, is there some visibility on the CapEx side that's come into view or not at this point?

Yes. I mean, by and large, the PQI side of the house is not a CapEx business. These equipment purchases in terms of marking and coding or packaging and color tend to be, again, operational improvements to existing lines. Again, for our marking and coding business, we've got 60% of that business is recurring revenue based. And we've got a huge installed base there for continuing to upgrade as there are technology changes relative to substrates packaging sizes and so on. We see good pull-through in our digital workflow solutions in packaging and color, which, as you know, we've continued to invest there by virtue of M&A. So we see steady demand, and we feel confident about the future there.

Yes. And maybe, Jeff, I'll add 1 more thing is as you look at the packaging and color business on the Digital Workflow Solutions business, that's growing nicely. There, we have a pretty good visibility given those are SaaS contracts. So as you know, we sign up the contracts and we're recognizing revenue over time. So we have pretty good visibility on that side. And then the marking and coding, as Jennifer said, for us, the demand patterns have been pretty steady.

And we'll take our next question from William Grippin with Barclays.

My first question, you're flagging some early progress on cost saves here in the third quarter. I guess on top of that, some small benefit here from tariffs. I was wondering if you could help us think about the margin cadence next year within that context? And I guess just maybe more specifically, just given the progress thus far on the cost saves, are you maybe seeing potentially more cost-out opportunity than you had initially laid out?

Thanks, Will. As you kind of look at the cost optimization program, at the beginning of the year, we had said that roughly half the savings by 2027 and then full run rate in 2028. That plan is still one to follow. Look, we've had some early successes and good start out of the gate. So we're going to see $10 million to $15 million worth of savings in 2026. But for 2027, at this point, I'll just model it the way we kind of guided earlier, roughly half the savings.

We'll give more specifics as part of the 2027 guide on where we stand. Just keep in mind, right, that the savings are net of investments as well. So there's always a little bit of a variation on the timing, which we want to make sure that we properly dial in into the '27 guide. So that's how you should think about the cost optimization program at this point, on track with a nice early start in 2026 for us.

Great. And my follow-up here, in the release last night, you noted strong demand from municipals in Hach. I was wondering if you could provide a bit more color on drivers there, whether it be replacement cycle, new product introductions within that business or new customer wins? And maybe how are you thinking about demand trends exiting the year?

Yes. I mean I would say here on the muni side of Water Quality, we're really kind of firing on all cylinders here, and this is on the back of a 3-year build relative to commercial architecture, VES discipline, new product development. And as a reminder here, we're really on the OpEx side of our customers' operations as opposed to CapEx. It's nondiscretionary spend, right? This is regulated testing. So customers use our equipment to make sure that they stay within compliance.

And I would say here throughout the last year or so, our new product development flywheel has particularly taken hold, and we see that across our analytics business as well as our water treatment businesses. So for municipalities, Hach's got a brand-new flagship spectrophotometer. We've got new ammonia and phosphate analyzers. And so we continue to see sort of great execution that's been bolstered by this increasing cadence of new product development launches. So we feel good about our position here, and we would expect that to continue.

We'll take our next question from Mike Halloran with Baird.

So maybe just some thoughts on underlying trajectory in the short term here. You certainly heard the answer to Jeff's question. Just curious, it sounds like most of the pieces of your portfolio are tracking sequentially the right way. And anything that you're seeing that deviated from seasonality as you work through the quarter. But I guess the question, is there any areas of your portfolio that you're not seeing that positive trajectory? Or maybe put differently, are there any very obvious flex points that you're thinking about in the portfolio as we position for 4Q and next year?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Mike. Broadly speaking, all of our businesses are trending well in terms of growth and sequential acceleration. I would say we've seen some timing differences relative to kind of project timing, and that's affected pieces of our packaging and color hardware business to a lesser extent on the water side. And I would say projects tend to move around a little bit, but they generally come through. So we haven't seen any indefinite delays or project cancellations, but timing sometimes is variable there.

In the main, I would say, by virtue of our large sort of recurring revenue business, things are pretty steady. Demand continues for the products and services that we have. We've got great secular drivers relative to data centers and feeder industries in power, semiconductor and mining. Recycle reclaim is big on the muni side as water scarcity becomes a bigger issue. And I would say in the Food Safety Modernization Act, it's driving a lot of need for product reformulation, packaging changes and so on. So we see good demand there as well. So I think we feel pretty good about the outlook here in the fourth quarter and the fact that we believe that momentum will continue here into 2027.

I appreciate that. And then just on the capital deployment side, it's been an aggressive year and balanced with buybacks and M&A. So maybe a twofold question. One, how are you thinking about the buyback intent in the short term? Obviously, you saw some of the ongoing repurchases in October. But then how do you think about the pipeline after having completed a fair number of acquisitions over the last 18 months or so.

Yes. Mike, thanks for the question. As far as the buyback is concerned, look, if you add what we have done in October that we disclosed, we're effectively done with $550 million of share repurchases out of the $750 million program. Look, I mean, we -- as we always said, we're going to be opportunistic. And if there's an opportunity in the marketplace where we think there's a disconnect between the intrinsic value and the market value, you should fully expect us to be using the authorization. So we'll continue on that path.

As far as overall the pipelines are concerned, look, the pipelines are pretty active on the M&A side, both. So as we kind of move forward, we expect to stay pretty balanced. There's no change in the overall capital allocation strategy.

And we'll take our next question from Nathan Jones with Stifel.

This is Adam Farley on for Nathan. Maybe on chemical treatment within Water Quality, on the data center piece, what is Veralto's overall exposure to data centers within Water Quality? Maybe where do you think that exposure can grow to over time? And where in the data center construction time line does chemical treatment benefit?

Yes. So overall, as we've said previously, our total sales in the data centers today remains small. We will say that our data center growth continued to be very strong and in fact, doubled in Q3, but that's obviously off of a small base.

And the draw here is from both our treatment and our analytics businesses. We are, by virtue of our ChemTreat business, engaged early in those project builds and get requested to participate in helping to consult on water train and water treatment design so that customers can optimize both water utilization, power consumption. Those often are counterbalanced to one another.

And so finding the balance between power-efficient and water-efficient design is something that every data center is working to solve for. So we are involved early in the process. We have good installed base relative to utility water and increasingly have offerings and are really in the liquid side of direct-to-chip cooling as well. So good exposure here, small base of business, growing double digits, strong double digits, and we would expect that to continue for the foreseeable future.

Yes. I mean, Adam, as you kind of think about the data center business for us, especially on the treatment side, it's an annuity business for us. So yes, the build cycle, I get that question, but think of our business predominantly as more annuity business as these data centers come in and operate.

That's really helpful color. And then just staying on Water Quality. Can you provide an update on your expectations for growth regionally? Do you expect North America to continue to lead growth maybe through next year? And then maybe what are you seeing out of China?

Just to clarify, the last point was what do we expect out of China?

Yes. In Water Quality.

Yes. Okay. Water Quality. Yes. So China continues to be lower in its muni spend, kind of still bumping along the bottom there. We're not accounting for or expecting any significant change there. But as a reminder, China represents about 6% of our sales. In Latin America, water was down modestly year-over-year, but higher sequentially throughout the quarters here. Underlying demand is strong, but timing of some of these projects has been delayed, and that's largely on the back of waiting for election results and so on.

I would say, given the completion of the election here in Brazil, that uncertainty should clear here, and we should start to see that demand start to increase. So we continue to watch our high-growth markets here. They have been relatively lower than their name would suggest with good growth in the Western markets of Europe and North America. But we continue to have good opportunities in Latin America, I would say, as well in India, parts of Southeast Asia, but China is definitely still not investing.

And we'll take our next question from Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup.

Can you hear me?

Yes, go ahead.

Andy, we can hear you.

So maybe we could just double-click into the reacceleration organic growth you're seeing in PQI. Jennifer, you mentioned some project delays, but obviously, your growth has been picking up and you've continued to talk about acceleration in digital workflow solutions. So what are your core customers telling you? And given that the economic environment is sort of mixed out there?

Yes. I mean I think what we see here is strong demand and bookings of our digital workflow solutions. This is on the back of the TraceGains, GlobalVision acquisitions being integrated into the Esko digital backbone. And as you know, we book revenue over the life of the contracts, which gives us good visibility and confidence in the sequential core growth acceleration. We continue to see steady demand in marking and coding, right? There are some category changes within consumer product goods. But effectively, we see strong continued performance and uptake from our mid-market customers. That's going to continue to result in sequential core sales growth. And then I would say the other element here is Q4 has got a relatively easy comp in our marking and coding side of the business. So that's an element as well.

And then finally, say that our sales recovery of our color measurement equipment in packaging and color, we would expect that to come back. And we see good commercial execution, good funnels. We exited Q3 with stronger service growth, and that gives us confidence here as we head into Q4.

Very helpful, Jennifer. And then Sameer, can you give more color into what you're seeing maybe in price versus cost? I think you're modeling adjusted operating margin to be down a bit in Q4 versus Q3, even excluding the tariff benefit in Q3. So just maybe the puts and takes on sort of how you're thinking about margin in Q4?

Yes. Andy, as you look maybe just sort of the margin first. If you look at the margin for Q4, yes, sequentially, most of the impact that you see is really driven by the Cleanwater1 acquisition. Overall, for Q4 margins, you should fully expect the fall-through to be 30% to 35%. So that's roughly 30 bps of a margin expansion on a year-over-year basis. Cost optimization program, if you look at the guide that we've given for the full year, that adds another roughly 40 basis points to the OMX for, so that's add 70, and that 70 is mostly offset by Cleanwater1 acquisition as that's how we kind of modeled in.

But as you know, in Q4, we do tend to make some investments to help support '27 strategic initiatives. So we've built in a fairly healthy amount of investment in Q4 tied to that. To the extent that those things come in light, of course, there will be upside to the guidance.

And we'll take our next question from Jacob Levinson with Melius Research.

Just to go back to Mike's question for a second on the M&A side of things. I know you folks have been pretty active here with a number of bolt-on deals. But can you just give us a sense of what that funnel looks like from here? Is it a lot of these smaller assets that are out there? Or are there also some larger deals that you might be interested in as well?

Yes. I would say, Jake, that it's a mix. Both funnel or funnels on both sides of the house are healthy and full, lots of cultivation work underway. I think what you've seen us do here in the first 3 years is build out our position in treatment, in the environmental business and digital workflow solutions, all of which are expansions of our current positions, but squarely within our wheelhouse.

So we feel good about the funnels. There are all kinds of assets in those funnels. There are large deals, there are small deals. There's technology deals, there's geographic expansion deals. And so we have a track record here of going after these strategic bolt-ons. I think we're well served by that. But again, we've got a variety of different types of assets in our funnel that we'll continue to work and bring those in under the very disciplined approach that we've taken thus far to increase long-term shareholder value.

Okay. That's helpful. You made a comment in your slide deck on Slide 4 that I'm not sure I've seen before around modernized technology and upgrade of facilities. I know you've done some work on the footprint given everything with tariffs. But maybe you can just elaborate on what that really means.

Yes. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that some of our technologies might have atrophied in prior times being a smaller portion of Danaher. And so this is just part and parcel to continuing to mine the shop here at Veralto and make sure that we have modernized tech stack for all of our data systems to ensure that we are continuing to invest in technology. One example would be robotic automation of our Chemkey lines at Hach, right? We will continue to modernize and upgrade manufacturing facilities, our ability to utilize data in ways that are AI-friendly. And so this is just part and parcel to making sure that we are staying fit operationally, as we would say, and to make sure that we've got access to the latest and greatest tools to continue to be able to run the business well.

Yes. And Jake, like for those of you who have been to our Hach manufacturing facility in the last 12 to 18 months and any of the tours, right, you've seen all the automation that we have done over there on the board manufacturing side. So those are the kind of examples where we are really upgrading our manufacturing footprint to be able to serve the customers more regionally and more effectively over here in the U.S.

And we'll take our next question from John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets.

So I wanted to dig into the water side and in particular, water treatment and the UV treatment, just where you saw the double-digit growth. I guess, can you help us to think about at least high level, how much price there was there? I think some of the players in the industry put out some blanketed type pricing, and it looks like it was around mid-single digit. I know you're a little more surgical. So maybe a little more detail or color around the pricing environment would be helpful.

Yes, John, thanks for the question. Look, the pricing over there is pretty much in line with what you're seeing overall, John. We want to make sure that we are covering the inflation in the chemicals that's coming in the chemical treatment side. But those are very selective discussions with the customers to make sure that we are serving them well and making sure we're getting paid for the service that we are delivering.

So there is nothing out of the normal overall, what, from our perspective, pricing is an important lever. At the same time, installed base and having those contracts in place for the longer term is really key. As you know, as you kind of think about the water treatment, both on the ChemTreat side and the UV treatment side, having installed base really drives recurring revenue over the longer term. So we're always very mindful of that, how we kind of think of the price in the instruments versus the services versus consumables.

Got it. Okay. No, that's helpful. And then also in the water side, you've made a couple of transactions, some very recent, some you've had a little duration on. I guess, can you speak to the growth that you're seeing in those businesses? Are they seeing any incremental synergy benefits on the revenue side yet or not? And how you're thinking about that going forward?

Yes. Maybe, John, I'll start with that. If you look at the acquisitions that we've done on the water side, the first 1 was In-Situ at the beginning of the year, really solid start. You've seen us, the expansion in the water side, if you look at the M&A contribution line in the Water Quality, like very solidly contributing. That's where you see the impact of In-Situ. Overall, I would say on the synergy side on the commercial, we are well ahead of the plan actually that we used to underwrite the acquisition. So feeling really solid about the In-Situ, and you're going to start seeing that in the organic growth as we're going to move into next year.

I would say the AQUAFIDES acquisition that we did in Europe on the UV treatment side, again, really solid execution and contribution that we're seeing over there. Alfaa UV and Cleanwater1 just early days, right? Alfaa UV, they've been there only less than a month. Cleanwater (sic) [ Cleanwater1 ] has been there for less than a month with us. So more to come on Alfaa UV and Cleanwater (sic) [ Cleanwater1 ]as we kind of move into the year and we talk about the guide. Overall, really pleased with the execution and the synergies, especially the synergy part on both In-Situ as well as AQUAFIDES.

Well, the way to think about this is all of those assets that Sameer just mentioned are high single-digit, low double-digit growers, right? And these, and it's by virtue of where they sit in the water treatment process. In-Situ certainly in groundwater hydrology side of things as municipalities look for intelligence around what water is coming into their plant as influent.

Alfaa UV, our UV business at Trojan has been a high single-digit, low double-digit grower. Alfaa gets us really good position in India with good sales into sort of industrial applications. And Cleanwater1 has a leading set of technologies that really help in sort of the disinfection, odor control and solids management side. So again, these are all sort of technologies and product lines that fit in high-value areas that are structurally faster growing than some other portions of the portfolio.

And we'll take our next question from Robert Davies with Wolfe Research.

I had 2. 1 was just on the cost optimization program. You'd obviously fleshed out some early gains there, $10 million to $15 million. But could you provide us a little bit more color exactly what you're doing, where the kind of main areas of focus is for that program? And then the second question was just around the sort of nonrecurring part of your business, sort of the 40%, I guess, of Water Quality. What's going on there? Do you see any sort of slowdown, any kind of impact from higher interest rates, any more caution or downtrading? That would be great.

Thanks, Robert. I'll start with the cost optimization first. The cost optimization program is really focused around 3 activities. The first is the simplification of the business processes. Second is the functional transformations to optimize the cost and then really looking at the investments that we can do to improve the competitive positioning from the technology perspective or the process improvement perspective. So that's how really the activities in the cost optimization program are focused around.

We've had a pretty nice start to the program early on. And as we're going to look at making the investments, overall, we are still on plan to deliver roughly half of the savings by the end of '27 and the full run rate in 2028. So that's how you should think about the cost optimization program.

And relative to your question around the 40% of Water Quality that is hardware or instrument base. Bear in mind that we've got hundreds of thousands of instruments from Water Quality sitting out in our installed base. And those will have a 7-year life on average. So ongoing sort of reoccurring revenue to upgrade hardware move to modern technologies as there are changes in the knowledge base of folks that sit in water treatment plants. There is a trend towards deskilling of the labor, and we've made a concerted effort here to collapse workflows, simplify the technologies that are deployed. And so we feel good about the ongoing demand for new technology purchases and upgrading the existing installed base that's out there.

And our next question comes from Andrew Buscaglia with BNP Paribas.

I'm just wondering if you could kind of set us up into '27 on margins here. And I know you don't want to probably give guidance for next year. But I think your margins are really starting to accelerate and to stark contrast to kind of what else we're seeing this earnings season where costs and inflationary pressures are starting to sting some companies. But you guys have navigated that quite well. But before we, just looking out to '27, are you cautious on costs creeping in, in any sort of business? Are you seeing any challenges on the horizon that have crept up in the last 3 months in terms of inflationary pressures? Yes. And kind of what's your view on just price cost and the ability to continue this margin acceleration into '27?

Yes, Andrew, thanks for the question. Let's start with the raw material costs and the price side first. As you kind of look at this year, look, we are seeing inflation, right? We are seeing the inflation in some of the materials that are tied to or which are oil derivatives. You've got to start looking at some of the transportation costs, memory prices, of course, as you know, we are an instrumentation company, so we do have some exposure over there.

So we are seeing those price increases, but really solid VES-driven execution and the partnership between our procurement teams and the business teams to help offset that. So at this point, as the results demonstrate both in Q3 and also as you look at the guide for Q4, we believe we are well positioned at least in 2026 to make sure we offset that and drive the margins.

Now as we kind of move into 2027, look, we will, Andrew, talk in more detail in February. But overall, I think it's fair to expect that, look, we will have 30% to 35% kind of a fall-through, and that's close to 30-ish bps on the margin side.

Cost optimization, of course, if you do the run rate, roughly $35 million cost saves. Now we look at $15 million already this year, right? So that's going to be a little bit of an upside on the cost optimization side on the margin side. But we are going to have a couple of headwinds as well on the margin side as we move into 2027. We got a little bit of benefit from tariffs, so that's not going to be there next year and then some of the dilution from the Cleanwater1 acquisition. So there are lots of puts and takes, more details to come in February.

Okay. Yes. And I wanted to ask on Cleanwater1. I think this deal, what looked interesting to me was it's like kind of a perfect fit with Trojan, and there seems to be some real synergies, like real near-term synergies where you might even get some accretion in '27, it sounds like on the bottom line. Was that the impetus to do this deal where it's like kind of a cost savings margin ramp type deal? Or is it like a missing link to your kind of technology portfolio that you think you had to have?

Yes. I think we're most attracted to the leading technologies that are brought with the acquisition. This bolsters our technology portfolio relative to treatment, and it expands our penetration into higher-growth water treatment applications. They've got a terrific 25,000 instrument installed base there, equipment installed base with deep applications expertise. We do see commercial synergies with Trojan and their UV treatment solutions. I think the first order business, obviously, is don't break what we bought. So we will bring them in, in the customary way relative to other acquisitions and focus on making sure that they're firing on all cylinders as we look for those opportunities to bring synergies together with Trojan.

Yes. And Andrew, to your point regarding the accretion, right, the point that I made earlier is on the margin, it might be a little dilutive. But from the EPS perspective, we expect it to be flat to slightly accretive, as you said.

And we'll take our next question from Jeff Reive with RBC Capital Markets.

My first question is on PQI. And so the high-growth markets there grew 4.7% with strength in China and Latin America. I think that's a notable reversal from the declines earlier this year. Maybe what changed? And is this recovery broad-based or concentrated in specific products?

Yes. I think one of the things that we see here with our high-growth market exposure in PQI is we see good growth in China as manufacturing has come online and industrial output increases there, particularly relative to our coding and marking business.

Anywhere in the world, we see growing middle class that leads to more sort of consumption. We see that in India, see it in parts of Southeast Asia, and we've seen relatively good uptake as well in Latin America for our products and services. So I think the secular drivers that are around sort of industrial manufacturing, growing middle class in terms of consumption for products that you'd see in our packaging and color side in terms of brand development as well as coding and marking is something that we continue to see as well. So good position here in high-growth markets, and we would expect that to just continue.

Got it. Okay. And then maybe just to double-click on PQI in the fourth quarter. I think you said you expect a meaningful acceleration in the digital workflow solutions. Can you just help us calibrate what meaningful means? Is this driven by bookings and ACV already in hand? Or is there an element of pipeline conversion that needs to occur? Or is this an easy comp?

Yes, Jeff, thanks. When we say it's meaningful, really, when you kind of look at the guidance, right, we said 5.5% to 6.5% PQI will be closer to the high end of the range, right, of our Q4 guide. What's driving it? It's really, as Jennifer said earlier in the call, right, is the Digital Workflow Solutions is going to be the biggest piece. There, we have the bookings and we are recognizing revenue over time.

So when you kind of look at the 3-month period, we have a pretty solid visibility on that. The PQ -- on the marking and coding side, it's going to be a steady demand. So there a little bit of comp helps for us. And last, the element that's giving us the confidence on the guide in Q4 is really the recovery in the color and measurement instrument. As you know, that business has been down for almost 4 quarters. We saw some recovery in Q3. And as we exited the Q3, the order books look good, good commercial execution that is giving us the confidence. So really, it's not dependent on 1 factor or the other. It's really a combination of those 3 factors, which is giving us the confidence as we kind of think about the core growth for PQI in Q4.

And we'll take our next question from Steve Volkmann with Jefferies.

This is James on for Steve. I guess I wanted to touch on Water Quality here a bit. Data center, obviously, is still small, but that has kind of doubled, and you kind of talked about chemical processing, food and bev, power and mining, all growing kind of double digits here. So are these kind of new site wins driven that kind of are going to build an annuity going forward? Or are those more so kind of recurring OpEx work? And how should we think about like sizing of this like fast-growing market exposure? I know data centers is small, but if we have to combine everything, how big are those?

Yes. So we don't disclose our sales by vertical market segment. Rest assured, when these are of size that require us to declare, you'll see it in print. But the way to think about our play in data centers is very much driven by the recurring revenue side of things. So for our ChemTreat business, obviously, there is a consultative opportunity early on when the plant is being designed. But the reality is where we really gain traction and start to accelerate is when those data centers come online. So there's greenfields, there's brownfields, there's expansion of existing data centers.

The technology within a data center will be upgraded every 5 to 6 years. So over a life of a 30-year data center, you've got 5 to 6 opportunities really to play a role in how they upgrade and optimize. But the reality is we've got to play in utility water. And then certainly, when those data centers come online, they're operating 24/7. And that's an opportunity for us to continue to have good penetration of our chemical solutions and services that go into everything from utility water to direct-to-chip cooling as well.

So I think the drivers here are pretty durable in terms of how we think about this going forward with every data center that comes online an increasing opportunity for us to gain market share.

Awesome. I guess following up on that, I mean, you kind of talked about increasingly offering into kind of the liquid side of direct-to-chip cooling here. And that kind of sounds like a different role from utility water chemistry. So what are you actually selling there? Is it like fluid chemistry, monitoring filtration? And is the content per site kind of richer than like the traditional kind of cooling water side?

Yes, there's going to be, look, it's going to be fluid and the services is kind of tied to it. You've seen us announce a partnership with Dow as well, right, on the glycol side. So it's a combination of things around that and the services that go along with it.

And we'll take our next question from Josh Spector with UBS.

This is James Cannon on for Josh. I just wanted to dig into the regional trends in PQI again. To me, the Europe numbers seem to lag a bit versus, to us, it seemed like the end consumer trends seem a bit more stable region to region. Can you just unpack what you're seeing there and how you expect that to trend going forward?

So yes, the low single-digit growth in packaging and color in Western Europe, what we see there is marking and coding flat. We do see solid growth in consumables, but modestly lower sales in equipment. And that's largely on the back of some timing around customer spend. We do see solid growth in Western Europe for marking and coding during the first half of the year, and we do expect certainly to see some growth here in the fourth quarter.

And we'll take our final question from Joe Giordano from TD Cowen.

So the acceleration at PQI here into 4Q, I just want to kind of understand like how representative is that of the true underlying conditions as we go into next year? Like is that a good exit rate to be building? I know you don't want to give guidance here, but just is there anything in that kind of 6.5% that's a little bit of onetime, a little bit of comps? Or should we kind of think about that's truly the pace of growth across that portfolio?

Yes. Thanks, Joe, for the question. Yes, look, I won't draw a straight line from that. Needless to say, in 2027 at this point, we'll talk about that in February. But if you kind of look at the buildup to the core growth in Q4 for PQI, right, marking and coding is kind of steady. So that should kind of flow into 2027 at this point based on everything that we know.

On the Digital Workflow Solutions side, that is driven by the underlying demand in the TraceGains, GlobalVision and core Esko product lines, that should expect that will grow. But on the color measurement side, comp is helping, right? If you recall, we started seeing the weakness in the second half of last year. So Q3, Q4 were pretty weak in the color measurement side. So that will normalize over time. But we'll talk about more in detail in February, Joe, but there are some elements which are kind of helping from a comp perspective here, too.

Yes. Okay. And then just on the Water Quality broadly, I'd say like as we've gone through earnings season, most of the commentary across water has been utilities kind of a little bit constrained on spend and project delays. And I fully appreciate the nature of your business is not into these projects and you're not doing water meters and stuff like that.

But ultimately, if these utilities are facing kind of budgetary constraints to some extent, does that ultimately like roll over to you guys on some sort of lag to a lesser extent? Like how should we think about the issues that they're seeing in 1 part of their spend ultimately impacting like the totality of the spend?

Yes. I mean, obviously, the vast majority of our sales in water are OpEx instead of CapEx; where they are CapEx, they tend to be on the operating side of technology upgrades or facility improvements as opposed to infrastructure, where government funding and federal funding is more material.

But look, we represent a low relative cost of the entire operating environment where critical workflows are essential. The cost of failure to the customer is high, and they're not going to take a chance on choosing not to fund water treatment operations. So our sales here are really durable, 60% recurring revenue, the other 40% is really around sort of upgrades and reoccurring revenue relative to equipment that needs to be replaced over time.

So again, we see this as being pretty durable on an ongoing basis, and we are very minimally exposed to sort of federal funding fluctuations. So we like where we sit, and we continue to have good momentum here.

Thanks, Joe. This is Ryan Taylor with Veralto. We just wanted to thank everybody for joining the call. That ends the question-and-answer portion of the call. And we really appreciate the engagement, and we wish everyone well, and we will talk to you next quarter.

I would like to thank everybody for their participation. Please feel free to disconnect at any time.

Hello. My name is Nikki, and I will be your conference operator this morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Veralto Corporation's Second Quarter 2026 Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now turn the call over to Ryan Taylor, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Taylor, you may begin your conference.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on the call. With me today are Jennifer Honeycutt, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sameer Ralhan, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is simultaneously being webcast.

A replay of the webcast will be available in the Investors section of our website later today under the heading Events & Presentations. A replay of this call will be available until August 7. Yesterday, we issued our second quarter 2026 earnings news release, earnings presentation, prepared remarks and supplemental materials, including information required by the SEC relating to adjusted or non-GAAP financial measures. These materials are also available on the Investors section of our website, www.veralto.com, under the heading Quarterly Earnings.

Reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures are also provided in the appendix of the webcast slides. Unless otherwise noted, all references to variances are on a year-over-year basis. During the call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jennifer.

Thanks, Ryan. I want to start by thanking our 17,000 associates for their efforts in delivering an excellent second quarter. In Q2, total sales grew 7.6% year-over-year. Adjusted EPS increased 19.4%, and we generated robust free cash flow of $328 million. We delivered 4.2% core sales growth led by Water Quality at 5.7% and PQI at 2%. As expected, core sales growth in both segments accelerated sequentially from Q1 to Q2. We expect year-over-year core sales growth to continue accelerating in the second half to approximately 5% to 6%.

Based on our Q2 performance and momentum across the portfolio, we raised our full year adjusted EPS guidance to $4.35 to $4.43 per share, representing 12% to 14% growth year-over-year. We continue to advance long-term value creation through strategic bolt-on acquisitions, including last week's acquisition of Alfaa UV, an India-based leader in UV water treatment solutions.

I'm excited to welcome our new associates from Alfaa UV to Veralto. And we also continue to opportunistically repurchase our shares. So far this year, we have repurchased over 5 million shares for approximately $480 million or just over 2% of the company. Overall, I'm proud of our team for their outstanding execution through the first half of the year and focus on our critical few, accelerating growth, optimizing cost and executing disciplined capital allocation.

Looking ahead, with a strong balance sheet and robust cash generation, we remain focused on compounding long-term shareholder value through high-quality growth, VES-driven execution and disciplined capital allocation. That concludes my prepared remarks. And at this time, we're happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

We will take our first question from Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets.

We continue to really like this highly efficient release of your prepared remarks and a really crazy busy earnings season. It's just such a great innovation. So thank you for doing that again. And hopefully, it's a best practice as far as we're concerned. So my first question, can we start with the core revenue guidance that's implied and you referenced it here this morning, the impressive 5% to 6% for the second half. Maybe unpack the drivers and your degree of confidence in this acceleration.

Yes. Thanks for the question, Deane. And it's great to have you leading off today. But before answering your question, I just want to say that we are grateful for your decades of thoughtful analysis within both water and industrial markets. I think all the way back to when Danaher acquired Hach and Videojet, where I was working at Hach at the time when we had our investor conference out there, I think you were one of the first analysts that I met. So we wish you all the best in your next chapter.

Thank you, Jennifer. Look, it's been a great run, and I appreciate all the support and insight you and the team have provided me over the years. So thank you for those comments. But I still have my questions.

Yes, yes. We're getting to your question right now. So obviously, we saw some sequential acceleration between Q1 and Q2. We feel really good about the momentum coming out of the first half of the year and the durability of the growth drivers here in the second half. I'll just cite 2 key drivers in each segment. I think in water, our industrial market demand continues to be strong. And this is really on the back of the data center demand and the associated ecosystem there, including power, mining and semiconductor.

Secondly, for water, we've got ongoing scarcity clearly exacerbated by climate change, which is propelling water recycling and reuse, giving us good opportunity to sell solutions into that space. For PQI, we continue to see strong demand for digital workflow solutions as CPG brands look to improve product compliance, traceability and time to market. And we see ongoing steady demand for our marking and coding solutions, clearly supported as well by easier comps in the fourth quarter. So based on where the funnels were at the end of Q2, we feel really good about the momentum and confident in the second half guide for core sales growth.

And maybe, Deane, I'll just add one more point. As you look at the second half core growth of 5% to 6%, we expect it to be led by volume with pricing moderating slightly, but still be at or slightly above the high end of the range. So this will be a volume story in the second half of the year.

Great to hear all of that. And then just a second question on capital allocation. It's been really nice to see the balanced approach here. I mean you've been opportunistic on some bolt-on acquisitions and the buybacks coming through. Sameer, can you just give us a sense of how you're looking at these opportunities? What does the funnel look like? You've made some pretty obvious accretive deals here. What's that pipeline look like? And in the meanwhile, can you do more buybacks?

Thanks, Deane, for that question. Yes, as you kind of look at the capital allocation kind of a framework, Deane, there's really no change. Our first bias is, of course, towards M&A to create long-term value. And we will be opportunistic on the buyback side. And if the valuation stay, there's a disconnect between the free cash flow generation of the company and the public market value, we will be out in the market from a share buyback perspective.

But otherwise, on M&A side, the funnels are pretty good, Deane, on both sides of the house. So we're in active cultivations and pretty actively looking at things. But as you know, M&A is episodic. So we'll stay patient and disciplined.

Our next question comes from Scott Davis with Melius Research.

I guess with Deane leaving, I'm going to have to actually learn what the water business is finally. [ I'll call him ] if I need any help. So maybe he'll be kind enough to give me his home number, and I'll just call him in future quarters. So anyways, he will be missed by us as well. He was a great colleague and friend.

But anyways, guys, getting back to business. The -- you talked a little bit about the opportunity around data center, power gen, semi-cons, I think you threw mining in there, too. Is there any way you can kind of size that if you combine those or even help us understand the -- anything about really how that -- how we can think about the TAM in those businesses or opportunities or how big of a potential tailwind that may be to your top line in industrial water treatment?

Scott, as you're going to look at overall, it's demand and the revenue that we're getting from the data centers and the associated ecosystem, it's still a small number from -- on the high-tech side. But overall, it's -- from a company perspective, it's becoming pretty interesting as we're going to move forward. But at the Veralto level, it's still a little small number at this point. So we're not public with that number yet.

I mean you could think of ChemTreat Solutions in there to be strong double-digit growth, right? But that team has been firing on all cylinders. It is still a small -- smaller part of our overall business, but continues to be a really, really good grower along with some other sort of industrial reshoring and near-shoring activities. So we're seeing lift kind of across the board.

Okay. Fair enough. And then you guys in past quarters have kind of talked about this cost-out plan. given kind of the recovery you're seeing in some of your markets, is there -- maybe you can update us on what you're planning on doing there? And the timing and such?

Yes. The program is on track, Scott. So we are well on our way on -- we've started executing some things. Impact as far as the savings are concerned in this year, we're going to see a very small lift maybe in Q4. That's baked into the guide. It's a very small number. We're talking a few millions at this point. The biggest benefit we'll see is in '27. But overall, there's no change as far as if you're referring to any lift in the business and is that impacting the cost optimization program? Absolutely not. We are fully committed and progressing well.

We will move next with Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research.

Maybe just 2 quick ones from me. First, on the volume pickup that you expect in the back half. Do you see that being led by equipment or consumables? Can you maybe unpack that a little bit?

It's a combination of both, Jeff. On the water side, it's going to be pretty balanced across both sides. But PQI side is pretty interesting. If you look at the PQI side, really, there are 3 building blocks. The first one is going to be driven by the digital workflow solutions. Over there, as you know, we book -- and based on the ACVs of the contracts that we have been booking, we have pretty good solid visibility into the second half recovery in the digital workflow solutions.

Marking and coding continues to be very strong. So the year-over-year comp is going to look very good as you're going to look at what the Q4 impact last year. And then on the color validation and certification instrumentation side, we have started seeing the funnels improving and the velocity improving over there as well. So we should start seeing an uplift in the second half of the year. So when you look at both on the PQI side and the Water Quality side, it's pretty broad-based. It's not tied to any product line.

And then when you look at your price capture, it actually is very solid, in my opinion, for a business that's not metals-intensive and I don't think had a lot of sort of tariff-related pressure. Is that primarily reflective of price capture in consumables? Or how are you doing on the equipment side in terms of getting some incremental price?

Yes. I mean our philosophy is every product has to earn the right to be in the portfolio. So we take a balanced approach, and it's -- we've been surgical about where and how and how much we increase price. Obviously, we look to cover inflationary impact, impact of tariffs, et cetera. But you see balanced price read-through on both consumables and equipment. It's a little bit higher on consumables given the captive nature of those products.

Our next question comes from Mike Halloran with Baird.

A couple here. So just can we talk a little bit about back half margin progression, what the assumptions are? And any help you can give by segment and how that tracks to the quarters?

Yes, Mike, as you're going to look at the margin side, we will start -- we'll see a sequential improvement on the margin, right? In the guidance, we kind of laid that out that we should expect roughly 25 bps of margin expansion in Q3. And for the full year, it's going to be 25 to 50. So Q4, we're going to see a nice margin uplift, especially in the PQI side because that's where we saw some of the impact from the fixed cost absorption side and then the line moves of duplicate product line -- production lines that we had on the marking/coding side. So think about margin expansion, roughly 25 bps in Q3 and for the full year, 25 to 50 basis points of Q4 will be north of 50 as you can think.

Any nuance by segment there?

Q4 will be largely led by PQI, but on the water side, it's going to be steady on what we have seen so far.

And then just on the PQI side of things, talk about what you're seeing on the equipment side and that headwind abating on the packaging and color side into the back half of the year. And maybe touch on what you're seeing on the workflow solutions that gives you the confidence in the acceleration and the -- frankly, secular opportunity you're seeing on that side?

Yes. So we've got a decent ramp in PQI here in the second half. It's really driven by 3 things. The first is we're seeing strong demand and bookings of our digital workflow solutions with the integration of Esko, TraceGains and now GlobalVision. We also see steady demand in marking and coding that's bolstered by an easier comp in Q4. And we do see recovery in our packaging and color equipment. We exited Q2 with better funnels and stronger service growth. And so we've got good confidence in kind of the second half acceleration of core growth there.

We also have a number of new product launches that have come to market here for PQI as a function of our increased investment at the time of spin. So flywheel of innovation is accelerating. We've got a number of good innovations coming to market.

Our next question comes from John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe just a quick one on the pricing side. I think, Sameer, you said, back half, you're not assuming much in terms of further price acceleration. I guess, is that a function of the comps are a bit tougher? Or is that a function of you just don't see the need for it at this point, just given that costs may have stabilized? I guess how should we be thinking about pricing as we kind of progress through the rest of the year?

Yes. Thanks, John, for the question. First of all, I think on the pricing, we expect it to be pretty strong, right? Even in the second half, we should expect the pricing to be slightly above the high end of the range. So overall, from an absolute basis, we still expect to be pretty good. As far as the moderation point that I said earlier from a Q2 to Q3 and Q4, really, John, that is a comp. It's lapping up.

As you know, we introduced price increases last year when the tariffs started happening. And then we had our regular annual price increases in as well. So in the first half of the year, we have seen impact of both. And as we kind of get into Q3, we'll get back to our sort of normal price increases.

Got it. Okay. Fair enough. And then maybe just to dig a little bit deeper into the data center opportunities and how you're targeting that. I know we saw earlier, I guess, in the second quarter, there was a new partnership with Dow and some of their chemical for -- chemical solutions for the data center opportunities. I guess -- but should we be expecting further types of partnerships? And how are you looking to grow out that business? What are the avenues that you can take? And also, I guess, can you speak to potential M&A opportunities that you might see that help further target that market for you?

Yes. Great question, John. Yes, we continue to engage in partnerships across the enterprise, and we're excited about our partnership with Dow to help serve liquid cooling applications and data centers. But this is normal course of business for us as we look to extend our value into these high-growth areas. Relative to other applications and so on, look, we can't talk about anything specifically that's in the funnel.

But we like how we're positioned here. And as far as M&A and partnerships are concerned, we're going to look to our power alley of serving the operating environment of the customers' workflow where there's a good sticky razor/razor blade kind of relationship. And we are the right custodian to deliver the kind of value that those customers want. So I think we're well positioned here. We're looking at lots of things. And you'll know when we know as far as any assets that come into the portfolio as a function of that.

We will move next with Nathan Jones with Stifel.

I guess I'll start in the packaging and color side of the business. You talked about Esko, TraceGains and Global, and the impact that they're having together. Can you maybe talk a little bit about how you're leveraging each one in order to generate better sales and how that factors into the outlook in the second half?

And then you mentioned in your scripts environmental monitoring workflows, which I think plays into In-Situ and OTT and maybe how they fit together to drive additional sales as well. So maybe just sales synergies around the acquisitions, I guess, is the short way to ask it.

Yes. So obviously, we continue to stitch together assets here that deliver more value to the consumer products goods digital workflow. And everything from sort of package design, integrity through compliance, regulatory compliance, ingredient traceability, checking for accuracy of the print that's actually rendered on the package. All of those things are critical workflows for brand owners.

And to the extent that they can be seamlessly integrated is where the real volume or the real value is derived. In fact, we've -- at our most recent trade show, Esko World was able to demonstrate packaging design changes that normally span months into weeks and in some cases, down to a few days. So there's real value in that workflow just in terms of stitching those things together.

Bear in mind that GlobalVision has been a long-standing partner of Esko. And so the integration of those solutions is pretty straightforward. But TraceGains is also providing real value to this workflow in terms of ingredient traceability, regulatory changes and making sure that products are fit for purpose and meet all the regulatory affairs and compliance requirements.

So yes, we are seeing good value there. We see good brand uptake of those solutions, and we see that accelerating here in the back half of the year. Relative to your question in the environmental workflows, yes, we are speaking to the combination of In-Situ and our OTT products. And as we had mentioned previously, the 2 of those really fit together like LEGOs. One is strong in analytical quantity. One is strong in analytical quality.

So quantity and quality are both covered in those environmental workflows, and they provide important intelligence here for the integrity of water as it comes into the influent into water treatment plants. So knowing what is coming, how much is coming, whether it's clean or dirty, are all critical factors, particularly as you get more environmental aberrations, severe weather events and so on. So integration is progressing well there, and we're liking what we see.

And maybe just one thing on the environmental side, Nathan, I'll add is as you kind of look at the synergy numbers that we kind of talked about on the commercial side when we announced the deal, team is early days, but the team is executing phenomenally well and we are well ahead on the commercial synergy side numbers-wise.

I guess the follow-up question -- just a housekeeping one, I guess, around margins. You had the IEEPA tariff refunds in each segment. Can you talk about what the margin expansion was ex the IEEPA refunds? And I think the guidance contains no more IEEPA refunds in it. Any chances that there will be more coming ahead?

Yes. Thanks, Nathan, for that question. As you look at the refund side, effectively, we got roughly $16 million, $10-ish was in PQI, $6 million in Water Quality. Overall impact of the tariff refunds on the margin expansion on the adjusted OP was 110 basis points. So excluding that, the margin effectively came in pretty much in line with the guidance, Nathan, overall as a company and for each segment as well.

So really no surprises on the margin side. And as far as the future goes in the second half of the year, you're absolutely right. We have not included any further benefit from tariff refunds in the second half. But based on the filings that we have done, look, we can have another $0.02 per share kind of an impact benefit, but the timing is highly uncertain. So we've not added that to our guidance for the second half.

We will move next with Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup.

Jennifer, can you give us a little more color on how to think about the mix of Water Quality moving forward? For instance, how big is your overall industrial exposure at this point? Is it getting as large as your municipal exposure? And it looks like you're saying that industrial end markets are growing at least in the high single digits. It seems like it's more broad-based growth outside of data centers. So can you talk about the durability of that growth moving forward?

Yes. We're really pleased with our industrial growth. And if you look at our overall water business, about 50% of our water revenue comes from industrial applications. So it's really quite significant. Most of that industrial revenue comes from North America. And so we're really seeing the benefits not only of these discrete vertical markets like data centers and the feeder industries there, but also in the near-shoring and the re-shoring efforts. So we see growth being catalyzed here by strength in those industrial markets. That said, we've got plenty of analytical instrumentation and products and services that go into that space.

But the municipal markets are also holding up well, right? As a reminder, 60% of our revenue is recurring revenue. We sit in the operating side of the customer's plant where they're looking to make sure that they insulate themselves from any points of failure along their value chain there. So being integral to the operating environment, making sure that we help customers avoid critical points of failure, allows us to continue to see a really sticky business there on the municipal side.

And the other 40% really is revenue associated with continuing to upgrade equipment and deploy new technologies and so on. So I think it's really balanced across the portfolio. Certainly, there's a higher driver of growth coming from our industrial markets, but muni is holding up really well as well.

Jennifer, maybe I can double-click on the muni markets because obviously, we get -- and I'm sure you get asked the question a lot. I think you've called it steady. You reminded us of the recurring growth. Can you continue to grow in that business, you think, over the next several quarters, years? I do hear like municipalities worried about tight budgets. Can you do that and continue to grow in a more tight budgeting environment?

Yes. I mean the way to think about this is the budgets for operating a water plant are not elective, right? Water plants have to continue to operate, treat their water because communities and industry is relying on that water. So we don't see real aberrations or fluctuations in federal funding. Obviously, utilities, municipalities are going to be judicious with their spend, but we absolutely believe that we can continue to grow and grow at mid-single digits or better in this space.

Bear in mind, with new technologies, more efficient ways of running plants, more software deployed to get intelligence out of how well that system is running. Those are all opportunities for continued growth.

Yes. Andy, as you're going to think about our muni business, right, definitely on the analytics side is where you see the consumable side. But let's not forget on the Trojan side, we have pretty nice exposure on the muni through our Trojan business. And the bid activity that you see in the wastewater side, especially on the muni is pretty, pretty solid. So overall demand, as you kind of think and the growth of our muni business, you should look at both angles, both -- one from the analytics side, from a Hach side at the same time from our Trojan business as well, which has been growing pretty nicely.

We will move next with Ryan Connors with Northcoast Research.

I wanted to talk about ChemTreat a little bit. You've talked about pricing various points in the call, but it looked like we were going to get some relief there in terms of input cost headwinds, oil prices had come down. It seems like that volatility has picked back up. Can you just talk in more detail about the specific price/cost dynamics in ChemTreat? I know you mentioned the team is firing on all cylinders from a top line perspective. But can you talk about price cost and margins with the volatile raw materials here in ChemTreat?

Yes, Ryan, as you kind of think about the ChemTreat side, you're absolutely right. Look, in the ChemTreat, we've been working very closely with our customers, given some of the chemical inputs to see how we kind of make sure we can preserve the margins and get the right value for the solution that we deliver to the customers. Overall, as we kind of think about in that business dynamic, yes, some of the pass-through can move with the pricing. But at this point, frankly, we have not seen any sort of a change as yet.

Our goal is to make sure when price -- when the input side is so volatile, we are preserving the dollar margin. So that's one of the biggest focus for us as we kind of think about. And the discussions with customers that the ChemTreat is having is pretty real time. I mean we have got a phenomenal digital solutions to make sure our sales teams are fully armed to have those discussions.

Got it. And then one more on the PQI side. Just curious whether we've had this really high-profile recall situation with the Cyclospora infections with the lettuce outbreak. Just curious whether for your teams there, whether that type of situation creates an uptick in kind of interest and selling opportunity for people to get [indiscernible] when something like that is front page news like that, whether that's kind of an opportunity for a bit of an uptick in interest and opportunity.

Yes. Great question. The answer is absolutely. And while Cyclospora is the latest public health risk, any kind of bacterial or parasitic outbreak is not actually uncommon. You can go back to E. coli and peanut butter, botulism and infant formula, right? These kinds of episodes happen. And our PQI franchise is ideally positioned with Esko, TraceGains, and GlobalVision providing integrated workflows to help with regulatory compliance, ingredient traceability and packaging accuracy, while our coding and marking businesses aid in the date, lot code and distribution traceability.

So it's an end-to-end solution really for brand owners to ensure that they have product that is safe for public consumption. So together, our portfolio of solutions really provides that source to shelf intelligence to make sure that brand owners can protect public health.

Our next question comes from Andrew Krill with Deutsche Bank.

Could you give us an update on what you're seeing on electronics inflation, including memory with all the demand on those products from data centers? Is there anything very unusual from a cost perspective or availability perspective? And can you remind us where -- which products are most exposed to those in Veralto?

No. Thanks, Andrew. Great question. Our exposure in the electronics chain really comes to our instruments where we do use memory, we do use boards. These costs overall, when you kind of step back, Andrew, a pretty small fraction of the COGS. We are definitely seeing higher prices just like everybody else in the industry and frankly, broader economy. But the impact at the Veralto level at this point is not material. And from our perspective, look, the procurement teams are pretty -- working pretty actively. I wouldn't say that at this point, we have had any issues of sourcing.

It's a matter of pricing, but it's a small number that we are able to pass through. At the same time, look, this is where from the R&D team's perspective, they are looking at things as well as to how we can design and optimize things in a higher memory or higher semiconductor price environment as well. So those actions are helping mitigate the impact as well. So it's not a material impact at the Veralto level as a punchline.

Okay. Great. Very helpful. And then switching gears, the Alfaa UV deal, I think we didn't get a ton of airtime. Maybe can you just give us some more on like the growth rates. I believe the prepared remarks said double-digit growth this year. Is that sustainable? And maybe any help on margins now and where they could go as you use VES and integrate the company?

Yes. We're really happy to welcome Alfaa UV into the portfolio. This is a highly synergistic addition to our Trojan business, which continues to expand our footprint globally. Alfaa itself has a strong portfolio of competitive fit-for-purpose solutions, along with an established commercial presence in India. And you can think about this as being a similar type of transaction relative to AQUAFIDES, which is the UV business we acquired in Europe. And part and parcel to the geographic expansion that Trojan is doing.

I think Alfaa also gives us an opportunity to expand in other high-growth markets with their portfolio. So Trojan, AQUAFIDES, and Alfaa all sort of fit together nicely to cover a variety of UV treatment applications, high flow, low flow, different kinds of water matrices and so on. So again, small business in India, but a double-digit grower, and we do believe that, that's sustainable going forward.

We will move next with Andrew Buscaglia with BNP Paribas.

So you guys sound rather positive, I think, on the past acquisitions you made. I know that paid some rich multiples for them and people are looking for signs of synergies coming through. So would you say that they are tracking ahead of your expectation in terms of either growth or synergies? And could you just give us a little more color on that, please?

Yes. We've been really pleased with the deals that we've brought into Veralto since spin. And I think what you see is we've accelerated in terms of deal volume, both in number and overall relative size. It's been balanced between PQI and water. We really like the spaces that we're in with both of those segments. And I would say the vast majority of these deals have provided near-term synergies around sales acceleration and combining product portfolios, going to market with joint sales teams and the like.

So we certainly, at least to date, have really focused on accelerating our overall growth profile, and these deals are doing exactly that. There is opportunity clearly for ongoing cost optimization and getting more margin out of these different assets. And that's all baked into integration plans and transition going forward, but we're really pleased with what we've seen in the top line growth acceleration.

And Andrew, you're seeing that in the guidance, right, and the confidence that we have in the second half and then as we're going to move forward. Part of that is driven by the growth profile of the transactions that we've done.

Yes, exactly. That's fair enough. I know everything is kind of picked over at this point. So I wanted to ask a little more of a higher-level question. I get questions on your data center exposure in water. But I think there could be an interesting AI angle and PQI. I'm wondering if you see AI changing demand for things like inspection in marking and coding. We're seeing this in some other adjacent industries I cover as well. But what's your take at this point on AI influencing PQI?

Yes, you're seeing that. Look, Andrew, as you know, as part of the GlobalVision, we laid out a little bit of that as well, right? So in our digital workflow solutions, more so, we are definitely seeing that. We are offering the AI application agentic kind of -- layer kind of an applications on top of the solution that we provide to the customers.

So you're definitely seeing more on the digital workflow solutions side of the PQI. I mean it's going to be expanding more and more, and we're making investments even organically and from our talent perspective on that side as well. So we're already offering products on that side to the customers.

Yes. And GlobalVision is squarely in that space, right? What GlobalVision brings to the table is a deterministic inspection engine, right? And it's designed to produce the same answer every time because in regulated workflows, brand owners don't -- can't tolerate any room for error. So these are reliable, repeatable processes with proprietary data sets that will render the accurate answer every time, right? So -- and the Esko, TraceGains, and GlobalVision teams are effectively all working together to employ AI throughout that workflow because it will allow more mistake proofing and faster time to market while meeting regulatory requirements and traceability criteria.

We will move next with Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs.

I know a lot has been covered. So maybe a quick one for me, and I'll take these offline. Just on high-growth markets, maybe some comments around the outlook there, potential for further reacceleration in growth. I know that North America and Western Europe have been really strong throughout the year on a relative basis.

So if you could maybe touch upon kind of what you're seeing out there and the forward outlook for the high-growth markets.

Yes. So high-growth markets were relatively flat. We see a little bit of a tale of two cities here between PQI and water. For our China business, we've got strong growth in PQI, and we've got a little bit of shrink on the water side. I would say Latin America as well continues to see good order rates, but sales are a little bit down year-over-year sequential -- and they're improving sequentially.

I think we see underlying demand that remains strong, but we do see some timing delays in projects that are there. So again, we continue to watch and focus on execution between these different markets around the world. And we're pleased with what we see in recovery in China for PQI, still waiting for water to recover there in terms of traction. And then we're watching Latin America closely.

Thanks, Brian. This is Ryan Taylor. We appreciate everybody that was able to engage with us on the call. At this time, we have hit our time limit of 45 minutes for the call, so we're going to have to cut it off here. As usual, I'll be available for follow-ups throughout today and over the course of the next several days. We thank everybody for joining us, and we'll talk to you next time.

Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Bo and I will be your conference operator this morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Veralto Corporation's First Quarter 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Ryan Taylor, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on the call. With me today are Jennifer Honeycutt, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sameer Ralhan, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is simultaneously being webcast. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Investors section of our website later today under the heading Events and Presentations. A replay of this call will be available until May 29.

Yesterday, we issued our first quarter 2026 news release, earnings presentation, prepared remarks and supplemental materials, including information required by the SEC relating to adjusted or non-GAAP financial measures. We hope you had the opportunity to review them last night. These materials are available in the Investors section of our website www.veralto.com under the heading Quarterly Earnings. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures are also provided in the appendix of the webcast slides. Unless otherwise noted, all references to variances are on a year-over-year basis.

During the call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including those set forth in our SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Jennifer, who will share a few brief comments before we open the floor to Q&A.

Thanks, Ryan. We are off to a strong start in 2026, reflecting the effectiveness of the Veralto Enterprise System, the essential role of our products and services in customers' operations, and the resilience of our end markets. In the first quarter, we delivered approximately 7% total sales growth and 13% adjusted earnings per share growth, while continuing to invest in commercial execution, productivity and innovation.

Looking ahead, we expect core sales growth to accelerate as the year progresses. Reflecting this momentum and our strong first quarter, we raised our full year adjusted earnings per share guidance to a range of $4.20 to $4.28 per share. Thus far this year, we have invested approximately $1 billion across 2 strategic acquisitions: In-Situ in our Water Quality segment and GlobalVision in our PQI segment, and also made opportunistic share repurchases. I'm excited to welcome our new associates from these outstanding organizations to Veralto. Additionally, we initiated a new cost optimization program designed to streamline our business and enhance operating efficiency. These actions underscore the strength of our free cash flow profile and our ability to create shareholder value through multiple disciplined levers.

Going forward, our balance sheet remains strong, providing flexibility to pursue additional acquisitions and share repurchases. I'm proud of our team for a strong start to the year and for the actions we've taken to drive growth and continuous improvement as this year progresses and into next year.

That concludes my opening remarks. And at this time, we are happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] We'll go first this morning to Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets.

I really appreciate that innovation to release your prepared remarks after the close, makes things a lot easier to digest and go through the slides very thoughtfully. So what I'd like to do is start on Water Quality. And can we talk about the upside in core sales, certainly better than your peers this quarter. How much do you attribute this upside to Veralto's higher bias or higher mix in OpEx versus CapEx? And then just on the CapEx side, give us an update on Trojan and quote activity.

Thanks for the question, Deane. Yes, we see strong and stable demand across both our muni and industrial markets. To your point, the Veralto products and services really sit within customer operations where the cost of failure is high for them, right? And using our equipment is part and parcel to ensuring public safety, public health and so on.

So from a municipal standpoint, we see this really as a mid-single-digit grower with incrementally stronger growth in muni wastewater due to recycle, reclaim and reuse secular drivers. So we are seeing great uptake there. I would say on the industrial side, we see mid- to high single-digit growth there with strength in the common cast of characters around data centers. So that would include semiconductor, power and mining. And PMI trends have been positive here, right? So we feel really good about our water businesses, both across municipal markets and industrial markets. And that's, again, really on the back of being integral to that customer operating environment.

Relative to your question around Trojan and UV, activity here in terms of quoting and bidding remains strong. This business has some nice bolt-on acquisitions that we've done here is with AQUAFIDES, and -- but I think it's important to remember, there's a little bit longer cycle business, right? So the bookings that we would see now would be shipping largely in Q4 2027. But great order book activity there on the back of the secular drivers I discussed.

Great. And just a quick follow-up. With reference to the muni outlook for '26, what are you assuming for kind of the spending growth? And if you can separate what that CapEx growth would be versus OpEx, larger equipment projects, that would be great.

Deane, thanks for the question. With respect to the muni view that we have baked into the guidance, think of pretty steady from the analytics perspective. On the CapEx side, really, it's all driven by -- predominantly for us from a Trojan perspective. As you know, we are not in the majority in the CapEx cycle, we've had the OpEx cycle. So it's really pretty steady on both sides, Deane, as you kind of think about this thing. Steady in muni business going into analytics side, Trojan side really strong as Jennifer just laid out.

We go next now to Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research.

Jennifer, I was wondering if you could just elaborate a little bit more on kind of the cost program, sort of the catalyst behind it, maybe some things here that you weren't able to do pre-separation, et cetera. Just -- and maybe a little more color on some of the levers you're looking to pull there.

Thanks for the question, Jeff. Our cost optimization program here is just part and parcel to our continuous improvement mindset. We are always looking to drive continuous improvement, and this is really a natural evolution to make our cost structure more competitive in our journey to enhance EPS growth. This will really allow us to leverage kind of certain functional attributes across the enterprise that improve both our efficiency but also maintain our accountability within our decentralized operating model. So we will stay true to that decentralized operating model with the operating companies, retaining accountability and quick decision-making and service to their customers.

But it's been a 3-year journey here, right? The first part of getting the business stood up was to reinvigorate the innovation and R&D engine, get the right commercial architecture going in our operating companies, which basically provide the operating room to do everything else. Secondly, we really focused on accelerating our capital allocation flywheel and have that going now with some strong strategic bolt-ons, creating significant long-term value and also with our share repurchase activity. So cost optimization was a natural next step, right? And we're really focused on simplifying our business processes to improve operating efficiency and further strengthen the competitive position.

So some of these things you can't fully account for when you're part of a $30 billion enterprise. But from a timing perspective, this is really the right time for us to look at this sort of structural allocation of costs and make sure that we're rightsized for the size business that we are today and what will be scalable in the future.

And you didn't mention any benefits in 2026. We should expect this gearing up in '26 for things to flow in '27 and '28?

Yes, Jeff. Most of the actions that we have laid out in this pretty detailed plan are oriented towards end of this year. So in Q4, you're going to see [ part ] of the actions. So we haven't baked any benefit from the program in 2026 in the guidance. You should expect roughly 50% of the run rate savings in '27 and full run rate in 2028. That's how you can model the savings.

We'll go next now to Andy Kaplowitz at Citi.

Jennifer, I think in your prepared remarks, you mentioned packaging and color within PQI, down high single digits as a nonrecurring impact in Q1. Maybe just give a little more color around that? What are CPG companies telling you? Are they worried at all about inflation? Or is it just really lumpiness? And that's really the explanation, and I do think you're still forecasting good growth for the rest of the year in PQI.

Yes. So yes, it's a little bit tale of 2 cities here relative to the PQI story. At a high level, we see continued strong demand across our CPG customer base. And it remains steady in terms of our quoting and sales activity relative to coding and marking, and we've seen that for several quarters. Complementing that really is our digital packaging and ingredient solutions brought in here with the combination of Esko and TraceGains, which continues also to be strong, and we would expect that to continue with the addition of GlobalVision. GlobalVision obviously strengthens the value proposition here in terms of building a comprehensive workflow.

When you look at Q1 here relative to packaging and color, as you noted, we do see sales down high single digits here, primarily due to the nonrecurring revenue, including sales of color testing and packaging inspection equipment. But this was really focused in a few discrete industrial end markets, so automotive, textiles, building materials, driven by housing market and so on. So that's where we're seeing some of the demand weakness. But certainly, going forward, we feel strong about incremental recovery here. And certainly, we don't see any changes relative to CPG demand, which would indicate our confidence in the marking and coding business continuing to be strong and, in fact, accelerate throughout the year.

And then maybe the same kind of question on PQI margins. I mean, obviously, they've been at a high level for the last few years, but they've been a bit lumpy. I know mix matters, which I think you said is going to impact your Q2 PQI margin. But structurally, do you see PQI margin having the same opportunity that you have in sort of Water Quality and consistent with the long-term incremental margin framework you have?

Absolutely, Andy. As you can look at PQI, right, on a sequential basis, we had a very nice improvement in the margins. Mix helps, but at the same time, some of the rollover from the tariff actions that we kind of talked about is going to roll off as well. So overall, if you kind of look at the opportunity in the second half of this year and moving forward into '27, absolutely, we see same level of opportunity.

We'll go next now to John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe just one on the water front. I mean, in particular, some of your competitors in the ChemTreat arena have put through some really chunky price hikes and/or surcharges, [ 10% to 14% ] for one, [ 8% to 14% ] for the other. I guess, can you speak to your thoughts on pricing and if you see a need for it at this point, just given what's going on from a raw material perspective around the Iran conflict?

Yes. Thanks for the question, John. We take a disciplined approach to pricing within sort of all of our operating companies, but I think particularly you're referring here to ChemTreat. We -- by virtue of our 75% sales direct to customers, we've got a lot of customer intimacy and insight as to how to support their operations through this dynamic macro environment. And so we partner with them to achieve pricing that is going to offset the headwinds from rising costs, but we do this sort of very surgically. We feel that this approach has been disciplined in the way we execute it. It served us well to achieve that mid- to high single-digit core sales growth, and we've done this since the spin, and we would expect this approach to continue.

And then maybe just a little bit of color. Given the challenging environment with inflation and at least in some cases, there may be a little bit of demand destruction. Are you seeing any interesting assets that maybe weren't available to you in the market now coming to the market? Or is it really just too early for that given what's been going on?

Yes. John, maybe I'll take this one. If you look at it from the asset perspective, market conditions change, but we're always going to stay true to our market company valuation algorithm as we kind of look at all the strategic opportunities. Again, things do open up in these kind of market conditions, but it's too early to say at this point. But overall, pipelines look pretty active and pretty excited about the opportunities that are here in the near term for us.

We'll go next now to William Grippin with Barclays.

Just wanted to come back to the cost optimization plan that you've laid out here, I just want to make sure we're thinking about that correctly. Is that -- should we view that as sort of upside to your long-term margin expansion algorithm? Or does this sort of just keep you on track with that algorithm?

Yes. Will, thanks for the question. The short answer is yes, right? If you look at our value creation algorithm, it's unchanged, mid-single-digit core sales growth with 30% to 35% fall-through. So from a modeling perspective, as you kind of start thinking about '27, '28, it is logical to assume that we will use the 30% to 35% fall-through on the core sales growth and then add the savings from the cost optimization program on top of that. So think of it as a step change in '27 and '28. As far as particular -- the exact details for '27, of course, we'll talk when we give that guidance.

Perfect. I appreciate that. And then I wanted to touch on capital allocation here and just how you're thinking about the mix of that going forward. I think you've clearly executed on M&A recently as well as significantly ramped up the repurchase activity, and I think spent a pretty good majority of -- or a good chunk of the $750 million authorization. How do you think about that sort of going forward over the balance of the year, maybe into '27? And could we potentially see an increase in the authorization? Or maybe what would be a trigger point for that?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Will. I think it's safe to say that we're going to continue to be disciplined here. We do have a bias for M&A relative to capital allocation. And I think you've seen that bias read through here with our $1 billion of capital deployed thus far in the year. The M&A engine is running well. And to Sameer's point, we've got active funnels on both sides of the house and engaged in several cultivation activities.

So our bias will remain M&A. We think that's going to create the best long-term value creation over time, but we reserve the right, as you've seen, to utilize that capital when we see market dislocations relative to the business performance, and we plan to continue to take advantage of that. As far as whether that would be increased, that's going to be a Board decision. And in due course, we will take that on at whatever time it is appropriate.

We'll go next now to Mike Halloran with Baird.

A clarification on the early -- how does the cost-opt program layer between the 2 segments?

Yes. If you look at the cost optimization program, Mike, it's pretty broad-based across both the businesses as well as corporate functions. Overall, I would say there's a little bit of more bias towards PQI, but it's pretty balanced across the company, if you think of it.

Got it. And then just from a guidance perspective, maybe help me understand what you're embedding in terms of seasonality, end market improvement versus end market stability here. Is there any expectation for an acceleration in end markets as we sit here today? Or is it relatively normal seasonality as it plays out? And if you are assuming any acceleration in any areas that we should be thinking about specifically?

Yes. So overall, as you kind of think about the end market dynamics, Mike, that we've built into the guidance, from a CPG perspective, pretty steady. Frankly, it tends to be less seasonal. Same for the global food and beverage markets. These are pretty nondiscretionary demand. So we expect the market and the demand to be pretty steady over here.

Similarly, on the water side, I would say, is the muni side, as Jennifer said earlier, it's pretty steady that what we are seeing, given where we operate, we operate in the OpEx side of our customers. So the risk of failure is very high. So we are pretty well embedded in the high-value part of the workflows.

So overall demand pretty steady. But in the second half, as you know, especially as we get into Q4, the comps get a little easier as well. So that kind of helps as you kind of think about the core growth. So sequentially, we should see core growth kind of moving up as we go through the year.

We'll go next now to Andrew Buscaglia with BNP Paribas.

Just wanted to check on the Water Quality, just a number of drivers, including data centers. I'm just wondering if you could [ parse out ] how influential that data center contribution was to growth. I don't know how you want to do it, but maybe just talk a little more about that, please.

Yes. I mean our water team had a fantastic quarter just in terms of execution, driving hard across the enterprise. Relative to sort of which markets are faster growers, we do see strong growth in data centers. But as a reminder, data center revenue is still overall a very small portion of our total sales in Water Quality. And so we don't spell out sort of market sizes, growth rate separately here publicly, but we will say that we're getting great traction here, a lot of uptake in demand, and that's benefiting essentially all of our water businesses.

And then M&A-wise, it certainly sounds like you're still interested in moving forward with capital allocation towards that. I'm wondering, we saw here on the treatment side, a move into the data center space a little bit more aggressively. Does that market interest you in terms of increasing -- maybe increasing in terms of the hierarchy of where your interests lie?

Yes. I mean, I think you'll see us stay true to our algorithm of market, company and valuation. We like businesses that look like us, right? We like razor-razorblade businesses. We like being in the operating cycle of the customers' operations. And we find that this gives us long-term durability and good confidence in sort of the steady state that we've been able to create here. So I wouldn't say we're taking anything off the table here, but I do think there are profiles of companies that we like, and we will stay true to relative to those that create long-term advantage and allow us to apply VES to make them better.

We'll go next now to Jacob Levinson with Melius Research.

I don't think we've touched on China yet. And I know some of your peers have had some challenges there on sort of the water infrastructure side of things. And I know there are different business mixes with your portfolio, but maybe you can just give us some color on how you'd characterize that market today, if there are any puts and takes around specific verticals?

Yes. China continues to behave like a more mature market. Our China sales here in the first quarter were up low single digits. Generally, in line with the past couple of quarters, not really any material change to what we're seeing there.

PQI did lead that growth with double-digit growth here. Now we've lapped some comps here, which make it a little bit easier to post some growth. Water Quality was down just slightly here, low single digits in China, and that is reflective of kind of the funding environment for municipalities with money still not flowing from the government to prop up that particular industry. So we continue to have opportunistic sales into industrial segments, still waiting for water funding to break loose here on the muni side in China but have strong opportunities that continue within PQI.

Okay. That's good color. And just a quick follow-up for Sameer. I think your tax rate has been going down a little bit over the last couple of years and just be helpful to understand how much of that is maybe just related to geographic mix or whether there's some planning activity you've been able to do over the last few years since the spin.

Yes. Thanks, Jake, for that. If you look at the tax rate is definitely, we have made a pretty nice move from where we started from 24.5-ish kind of percent when we kind of spun off, now in the 20s. I would say, Jake, it's a balance, but I would say majority is skewed towards sort of the really great work by the tax team and from a planning perspective to get it to the right place.

We'll go next now to Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs. Hearing no response, we'll circle back to Brian.

We'll go next now to Andrew Krill with Deutsche Bank.

I was hoping you could give us an update on tariffs. There have been a variety of updates from the Supreme Court ruling to changes in Section 232 rules and then also general cost inflation from higher oil. Can you give us an update how you're viewing the tariff headwinds and cost inflation headwinds this year and if that's changed at all versus last quarter?

Yes. Thanks, Andrew, for that. If you kind of look at on the tariff side, there are 3 layers, right? The stuff that happened last year, effectively, we've taken the pricing actions, all the line moves have happened. Those things should start rolling -- impact of those should start rolling over as you kind of get into the second half. So we are pretty well positioned on that front.

As far as the new Section 232 kind of stuff, we baked the impact of that on -- in the guidance that we provided. But overall impact as you can think about for us is actually much smaller. This is not like last year. If you kind of start thinking about the steel or aluminum kind of components into our products, it's pretty small. So those are -- the impact of those is pretty small for us.

As far as the Middle East and the current conflict and the impact that you're seeing on the commodities on the oil side, again, baked into the guidance, at least based on what we see right now. But as you can imagine, some really active discussions with the customers on the pricing side, Jennifer touched on the ChemTreat side earlier, the impact that we're seeing on the chemicals and packaging side, that's kind of baked in. But overall, we're pretty well positioned as you kind of think about the rest of the year. It's pricing and there's a lot of productivity stuff as well part of it.

Great. That's very helpful. And on a related note, just with price, is it still fair we should be thinking about the company realizing about 2% price or so? And I think PQI was trending a bit higher than Water Quality? Is that a reasonable approach still?

Yes, that's a pretty reasonable approach. Just kind of think of the pricing 100, 200 basis points. But frankly, with the price increases that we did last year, we're still lapping those up and then we had further price increases as part of this year's cycle. So you should expect this year in aggregate to be at the high end of the range with PQI even exceeding that a little bit.

We'll go next now to Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs.

Sorry about that. This is Tyler Bisset on for Brian. Just wanted to go back to the high-growth markets. You discussed how acquisitions of GlobalVision and In-Situ should help support growth here, but it was actually a little weak for both Water Quality and PQI during the quarter. So any reason for the weakness in the quarter? How do you expect growth to trend going forward? And then just, I guess, looking to 2Q, are you expecting any like material impact from the war in Iran?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Tyler. I just want to make sure I get the question right. High-growth market versus GlobalVision, right, let's bifurcate those two. GlobalVision does not have any kind of a meaningful impact as you kind of think about the growth in the high-growth market side. High-growth market side, effectively, we grew in the low single digits but -- or rather, sorry, a slight decline this year, but Water Quality was down low single digits, really more on the impact that we saw in China. But overall, PQI is in a little bit of a low single-digit decline as well. So nothing material. Majority of the impact that you're seeing is more sort of timing driven, especially in Latin America, that's kind of driving that impact. But otherwise, we're pretty well placed.

I would say as well, we've got a pretty big prior-year comp in India, right? We had that Q1 in India, it was about 20% last year. And we do see some impact here in Middle East, small portion of our overall revenue, but the sales there were down about 10%.

We'll go next now to Josh Spector with UBS.

I wanted to ask just about -- similar on some of the regional impacts here in PQI, I mean there's a pretty decent diversion between Europe and North America. I don't know if Europe was more impacted by some of the one-timer larger equipment sales? Or if it was something else? And if you could help what that looks like in 2Q, if any of that reverses at all?

Yes. So relative to Western Europe, PQI had a really tough comp in 2025. They were up 10.3% last year. So and this is on the back of our recurring revenue model where 3 extra days matters a lot in the first quarter of 2025. So very, very high comps relative to prior year. I would say here in Q1, our marking and coding businesses grew core sales low single digits, right? And that's on the back of a pretty healthy, sizable comp prior year. We did see an offset here by delays in shipments of certain hardware lines in our packaging and color businesses, which we referred to earlier.

But relative to sort of broad-based global CPG demand, we see it stable. We see it stable in Europe. We see it stable in North America, a little bit of a mixed bag in some of the high-growth markets largely because of a little bit of impact from, obviously, China, India. We've got some timing issues and then certainly the impact of Middle East and Africa.

Okay. That's helpful. And I guess if I kind of flip that the other way. If I look later this year, you have 6% and 9% comps in North America in 3Q and 4Q. Are those going to be characterized as tough comps to go against? Or should we expect you guys to be able to grow on that level later this year?

Yes, as you kind of get into the second half, you're going to see the growth despite the comps. In fact, I would say from the PQI perspective, the comps go a little easier as we get into Q4. Overall, since the demand -- given the demand dynamic that Jennifer just talked about on the marking and coding side from the CPG side, we feel pretty good about the second half of the year, and that's kind of baked into the guidance. So nothing sort of material deviation that you're going to see.

And we'll go next now to Joseph Giordano with TD Cowen.

This is Chris on for Joe. The EPS guide moved higher, even though the operational framework looks to be -- appears to be largely consistent. Can you walk us through the specific bridge items that are driving the revision? And how much of that is operational versus capital structure below the line?

Yes. Thanks, Chris, for that question. Overall, as you kind of think about the increase in the EPS guide. It's predominantly raised because of the operating stuff, the share buyback that we've done so far is already kind of baked in.

Overall, what's kind of driving this thing is really a few things. The strength of Q1 and the way we are coming out in terms of the order books for -- out of the quarter and into April. Second one is we talked about the pricing, pricing at the higher end. So that's kind of giving us the confidence as we kind of think about the full year EPS. And third, I would say is, really the execution that we are seeing across the board in both the businesses and across the regions. So those are kind of really the things that are kind of driving. Otherwise, the demand patterns are pretty steady at this point. And given where we are now with almost 4 months behind, gives us more confidence on that front.

Thanks for the questions. This is Ryan. That concludes our question queue for the call. We appreciate everybody's time and engagement this morning and preparation with the earlier materials. As usual, I'll be available for any kind of follow-ups that might be necessary. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll talk to you next time.

Thank you. Again, ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude today's Veralto Corporation's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, everyone. We wish you all a great day. Goodbye.

Hello, my name is Nikki, and I will be your conference operator this morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Veralto Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now turn the call over to Ryan Taylor, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Taylor, you may begin your conference.

Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on the call. With me today are Jennifer Honeycutt, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sameer Ralhan, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is simultaneously being webcast. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Investors section of our website later today under the heading Events and Presentations. A replay of this call will be available until February 18.

Yesterday, we issued our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings news release, earnings presentation and supplemental materials, including information required by the SEC relating to adjusted or non-GAAP financial measures. In addition, we also issued our 2026 first quarter and full year guidance. These materials are available in the Investors section of our website, veralto.com, under the heading Quarterly Earnings. Reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures are also provided in the appendix of the webcast slides. Unless otherwise noted, all references to variances are on a year-over-year basis.

During the call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are being made, ,and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Jennifer.

Thank you, Ryan, and thank you all for joining our call today. Our team finished 2025 with a strong fourth quarter, capping off an outstanding year for Veralto. I want to recognize our 17,000 associates worldwide for their rigorous VES driven execution that helps us serve customers improve operating efficiency and meet our financial commitments in 2025.

Our success last year was underpinned by exceptional contributions and tireless efforts by our procurement, supply chain and factory operations teams. During the year, we replicated and regionalized more than a dozen production lines into existing locations to drive flexibility across our footprint and improve our ability to serve customers more efficiently. These moves in combination with targeted supply chain and strategic pricing actions enabled us to successfully navigate last year's dynamic macro environment while providing strong support to our customers.

In 2025, we delivered mid-single-digit core sales growth, double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth and over $1 billion of free cash flow. As we closed out 2025, we established a $750 million share repurchase program and announced an 18% increase in our dividend. And at the outset of 2026, we completed the acquisition of In-Situ, expanding our world-class Water Analytics portfolio into fast-growing environmental water and hydrology markets. Going forward, we remain excited about numerous opportunities to create value for shareholders through strategic growth and disciplined capital allocation.

Entering 2026, we are confident that the enduring need to safeguard the global supply of clean water and safe food will continue to underpin steady demand for our products and services across our key industrial, municipal and consumer packaged goods end markets. Combined with our durable business model and a rigorous deployment of VES, we expect to deliver yet another year of core sales growth and continued margin expansion with mid- to high single-digit adjusted earnings per share growth.

Now turning to our 2025 full year financial results in detail. Total sales grew 6% year-over-year to $5.5 billion, an all-time high. We delivered 4.7% core sales growth with both segments growing near the company average. Incremental margins were within our long-term framework at about 30% despite headwinds from tariffs and growth investments in TraceGains. Adjusted operating profit margin expanded by 20 basis points year-over-year. And adjusted earnings per share was $3.90, up 10% year-over-year, marking our second consecutive year of double-digit EPS growth. And we generated over $1 billion of free cash flow, further strengthening our financial position. Overall, I'm very pleased with the gross margin expansion and robust free cash flow we delivered in 2025.

Looking at core sales growth by geography and end market for the full year, growth throughout the enterprise was broad-based across key verticals and regions, as our commercial teams executed well leveraging our VES growth tools and strategic investments. In North America and Western Europe, which comprise about 70% of our total revenue, core sales grew 5.3% and 3.8%, respectively, in 2025. And core sales into high-growth markets grew 5.1% year-over-year. Taking a closer look, in North America, core sales growth exceeded 5% in both segments.

In Water Quality, we continue to capitalize on broad-based demand for our chemical water treatment solutions, which delivered mid-single-digit core sales growth during 2025. From an industrial end market perspective, we saw the highest growth in chemical processing, power generation, mining and data centers. Our growth in these verticals was a function of solid demand, strong commercial execution and strategic new customer wins. North American sales of UV water treatment grew just under 10% last year, driven largely in support of our municipal customers' water reuse efforts. Both our water treatment and analytics businesses continued to benefit from increased industrial activity in North America.

In PQI, core sales in North America grew 5.8% year-over-year in 2025 with mid-single-digit growth across both packaging and color, and marking and coding. In marking and coding, core sales of consumables and equipment both grew mid-single digits year-over-year, with equipment sales growth from both our inkjet and laser product lines. This reflects a combination of steady end market demand, differentiated new product launches and strategic market penetration across an ever-increasing number of substrates.

In Western Europe, core sales grew 3.8% year-over-year, with Water Quality up 4% and PQI up 3.6%. Core sales growth in Water Quality was led by our water analytics team in Europe and reflects traction from our growth initiatives as well as improvements made to our commercial architecture in 2024. These changes contributed to rigorous lead generation, funnel management and VES catalyzed commercial execution. Notably, Water Quality's growth in Western Europe last year was across both municipal and industrial customers.

And in PQI, core sales growth in Western Europe was across both marking and coding, and packaging and color. Growth in marking and coding was led by consumables and continuous inkjet printers. And in packaging and color, our core growth in Europe was highlighted by strategic growth within mid-tier consumer packaged goods customers.

In high-growth markets, core sales increased 5.1% year-over-year in 2025, led by Latin America, India and the Middle East. In China, full year core sales grew modestly over the prior year, led by PQI. Overall, we delivered solid growth across all key regions while continuing to invest in our businesses for future value creation.

Since the inception of Veralto, our core sales growth has accelerated approximately 200 basis points, and our adjusted operating margins have expanded by an average of 50 basis points per year. Over this 2-year period, we have grown adjusted EPS by approximately 11% annually, with free cash flow conversion above 100%. This financial performance highlights our durable growth and capital-light business model fortified by the Veralto Enterprise system. The acceleration in our core growth rate reflects strong commercial execution and traction from strategic initiatives, including targeted geographic growth, enhanced service offerings and new product innovation.

From a geographic perspective, we invested in people and resources to capitalize on secular growth drivers in Latin America, India and the Middle East. Secular drivers in these markets, such as a growing middle class, increased scarcity of freshwater, rapid urbanization and expanding industrialization create a strong need for our products and services across both segments to test and treat water, and ensure packaged foods are safe to consume. We see the investment in these markets across both the public and private sectors.

In 2025, Latin America, India and the Middle East were our 3 fastest-growing regions. And as it relates to enhancing our service offerings, we focused on expanding support across our global installed base, increasing the attachment rate of service contracts on new equipment sales, and expanding our consulting services to new project design, particularly with respect to water treatment systems for data centers. This focus drove strong service growth across both segments in 2025.

As it relates to innovation, our increased investment in R&D, combined with a focus on new product opportunities that have the highest growth and most attractive returns have reinvigorated our innovation flywheel. Combined with our extensive direct-to-customer business model, these efforts have accelerated our development of fit-for-purpose solutions to enhance product quality, resolve critical pain points, and drive greater efficiency throughout customer operations.

Over the past 12 to 18 months, we have begun to see the fruits of our R&D efforts across Veralto with several new product launches. A few notable new products that contributed to growth in 2025 include a new ammonia analyzer launched in water quality that simplifies operations, improves efficiency and reduces maintenance for customers. This product is used at various stages of the water cycle to monitor ammonia levels, maintain water quality and protect the health of aquatic environment.

Additionally, we continue to expand the number of parameters customers can test using our most advanced and easiest-to-use testing technology, our single-use Chemkeys, which grew double digits year-over-year in 2025.

In our PQI segment, our new UV laser marking and coding system met strong customer demand in 205. This new technology is helping customers transition to more sustainable, flexible film packaging solutions. And in our packaging and color software offering, we launched a new AI-enabled solution to help streamline and error-proof packaging print during the design phase. This helps brands accelerate go-to-market and reduce costly reprints and product recalls.

Looking at 2026, we believe that the durability of the secular drivers across our key end markets will continue to underpin steady demand for our products and services. About 80% of our sales are tied to water, food and essential goods, and about 60% of our revenue is recurring. Of our recurring revenue, the majority is comprised of consumables that are critical to the daily operations of our customers where the cost of failure is high. In addition, our large global installed base of instrumentation and equipment drives a reoccurring need for replacement and upgrades each year, further fortifying our sales durability. Given these attributes and continued focus on our strategic growth initiatives, we guided to another year of steady core sales growth in 2026, and our third consecutive year of adjusted operating margin expansion with adjusted EPS growth in the mid- to high single digits.

In conjunction with reigniting our innovation engine, we are improving the quality of our portfolio with a focus on accelerating our core sales growth rate and creating long-term value. At the outset of 2025, we divested AVT, a slower growth instrumentation product line within PQI. Meanwhile, our acquisition of TraceGains grew sales by more than 20% in our first full year of ownership. The combination of Esko and TraceGains is helping our CPG customers accelerate time to market for new products and connect digital workflows to drive efficiency.

In our Water Quality segment, we acquired AQUAFIDES in the second quarter of last year. AQUAFIDES complements our Trojan UV business by providing low-flow UV water treatment solutions through an expanded footprint in Europe. And just a few weeks ago, we completed the acquisition of In-Situ, expanding our world-class water analytics portfolio in the fast-growing environmental water and hydrology markets. Based in Colorado, In-Situ is a global leader in water measurement and monitoring, offering easy-to-use sensors, sondes and data management solutions. Its differentiated technologies strengthen our position across the environmental water ecosystem and complements our OTT HydroMet portfolio.

Over the past 3 years, In-Situ has averaged roughly 8% core sales growth. And in 2025, In-Situ delivered approximately $80 million in sales, with gross margins around 50%, and EBITDA margins in the mid-teens. The addition of In-Situ expands our presence in fast-growing environmental water and hydrology markets, and enhances our ability to help address freshwater challenges related to increasing water scarcity, severe weather events and water contamination. Greater visibility to the quantity and the quality of surface and groundwater enables municipalities, government agencies and industries to mitigate economic risk and ensure public safety. These customers are increasingly faced with a variety of issues, including not enough water, too much water, water in the wrong places, and changing water composition, which requires different treatment solutions.

The combination of In-Situ and OTT products, along with support from our broader water analytics capabilities creates a significant opportunity to help customers efficiently monitor and analyze the quantity and quality of their freshwater sources. We now have a premier environmental water analytics portfolio with significant opportunities to accelerate growth through complementary channels, improve efficiency across our global footprint, and deliver greater value for customers and shareholders. This addition to our portfolio is squarely aligned to our purpose of safeguarding the world's most vital resources, and we are excited to publicly welcome the In-Situ team to Veralto.

Going forward, we remain excited about numerous opportunities to create value for shareholders through strategic growth and disciplined capital allocation. Our pipeline of acquisition opportunities remains strong for both Water Quality and PQI.

That concludes my opening remarks. And at this time, I'll turn the call over to Sameer to provide details on our fourth quarter results and 2026 guidance.

Thanks, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with our consolidated results for the fourth quarter.

Total sales grew 3.8% on a year-over-year basis to nearly $1.4 billion. Currency was a 250 basis point tailwind year-over-year, and divestitures, net of acquisitions, reduced sales by 30 basis points, primarily reflecting the AVT divestiture. Core sales grew 1.6%. Our core sales growth was primarily driven by price, which increased 2.3% year-over-year. Volumes were down modestly, a function of 3 fewer shipping days in the fourth quarter of 2025 versus the prior year. This impact was approximately 260 basis points.

Underlying demand remains steady in both the segments. Recurring revenue grew mid-single digits year-over-year and comprised 59% of our total sales. Gross profit increased 3.4% year-over-year to $828 million. Gross profit margin was 59.3%. Adjusted operating profit increased 7% year-over-year, and adjusted operating profit margin improved by 80 basis points to 24.6%. The increase in Q4 profitability was across both our segments, driven by strong operating execution.

Looking at EPS for Q4, adjusted earnings per share grew 9% year-over-year to $1.04 per share. In the fourth quarter, we generated free cash flow of $291 million, or 115% conversion of GAAP net income.

I'll cover the segment results now, starting with Water Quality. Our Water Quality segment delivered $846 million in total sales, up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Currency was a 240 basis points tailwind. The acquisition of AQUAFIDES contributed 50 basis points of growth. Core sales grew 1.4% year-over-year, led by price, which increased 1.8%. Volumes decreased modestly due to 3 fewer shipping days. Underlying demand for our water analytics and water treatment solutions remained steady year-over-year. Adjusted operating profit increased 5.8% year-over-year to $219 million, and adjusted operating profit margin was 25.9%, up 40 basis points year-over-year.

Looking at the full year, our Water Quality team delivered core sales growth of 4.7%, driven largely by volume. Core sales growth was equally driven by recurring revenue and instrumentation. Adjusted operating profit grew 9.4%, or $74 million, to $858 million. This resulted in 80 basis points of margin improvement. Overall, our Water Quality team executed well in 2025 and delivered outstanding financial performance, setting all-time highs in annual sales and adjusted operating profit.

Moving to the next page. Total sales in our PQI segment grew 3% year-over-year to $550 million in the fourth quarter. Currency was a 280 basis points tailwind. Net divestitures reduced sales by 1.6% year-over-year. This was primarily due to the AVT divestiture, partially offset by a couple of small technology acquisitions. Core sales grew 1.8%, with price up 3%. Volume was down 1.2%, primarily due to the 3 fewer shipping days, which had an impact of approximately 260 basis points to volumes on a year-over-year basis.

Underlying demand for our PQI products and services remained steady. PQI's adjusted operating profit was $146 million in the fourth quarter, up $13 million over the prior year period, resulting in adjusted operating profit margin of 26.5%. This represents a 160 basis point improvement over the prior year period. For the full year, PQI delivered 4.8% core sales growth, an adjusted operating profit margin of 26.5%. The full year margin reflects investments in TraceGains to drive continued strong double-digit growth as well as investments made to diversify our regional production. Overall, it was a very strong year for our PQI team that delivered all-time highs with nearly $2.2 billion in sales and adjusted operating profit of $578 million.

Turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow. In Q4, we generated $311 million of cash from operations. We invested $20 million in capital expenditures. Free cash flow was $291 million in the quarter, or 115% conversion of GAAP net income. At the end of the fourth quarter, gross debt was $2.7 billion and cash on hand was $2 billion. Net debt was $642 million, resulting in net leverage of 0.5x.

As Jennifer shared, early in the first quarter of 2026, we completed the acquisition of In-Situ. The deal was funded with cash on hand. The cash outflow in Q1 for this acquisition was $427 million, net of cash acquired. Even after this acquisition, we continue to have flexibility in how we deploy capital. To that point, in the fourth quarter, our Board of Directors approved an 18% increase in our quarterly dividend and authorized a $750 million share repurchase program.

We have an attractive pipeline of opportunities in both Water Quality and PQI. We will remain disciplined in our approach as we continue to deploy capital to create long-term shareholder value. Over the long term, our bias remains to create long-term shareholder value through M&A.

Turning now to our guidance for 2026, beginning with our expectations for the full year. We are targeting core sales growth in the low to mid-single-digit range on a year-over-year basis. Total sales growth, including the impact of completed acquisitions and FX, is projected in the mid- to high single-digit range. We are modeling a currency tailwind of 100 to 150 basis points. This assumes that FX rates as of December 31 prevail throughout the year. Acquisitions net of divestitures are expected to contribute 150 basis points of growth, primarily from the In-Situ acquisition.

Moving to adjusted operating profit margin. We're targeting approximately 25 basis points of year-over-year improvement in 2026. This assumes 50 basis points of margin expansion in our core business, offset by about 25 basis points of dilution from the In-Situ acquisition. Our adjusted EPS guidance for the full year 2026 is in the range of $4.10 per share to $4.20 per share, or mid- to high single-digit growth over the prior year. We are targeting free cash flow conversion of approximately 100% of GAAP net income. This assumes CapEx in the range of 1% to 1.5% of sales, and a modest working capital investment to support our growth.

Looking now at Q1, on a year-over-year basis, we are targeting core sales growth in the range of flat to up low single digits, and total sales growth, including the impact of completed acquisitions and FX in the range of mid- to high single digits. Currency translation is expected to be a year-over-year tailwind of approximately 3.5%. And acquisitions net of divestitures are expected to drive about 50 basis points of sales growth. As a reminder, our core sales growth in Q1 2025 was 7.8%, setting up a tough comparison for this year. Our Q1 2026 guidance implies a 2-year stack of about 4% to 5% core sales growth. We are targeting adjusted operating profit margin of approximately 24.5%, and adjusted EPS in the range of $0.97 per share to $1.01 per share. Additional details on the modeling assumptions supporting our full year and Q1 guidance are in the appendix of our earnings presentation.

That concludes my prepared remarks. At this point, I'll turn the call back over to Jennifer.

Thanks, Sameer. In summary, we capped off an outstanding 2025 with a strong fourth quarter. Given the essential need for our technology solutions, durable business model and strong secular growth drivers across our end markets, we expect another year of steady core sales growth in 2026. And we will continue to leverage the power of the Veralto Enterprise System to drive continuous improvement in support of our customers.

Our financial position remains strong, and we will continue to evaluate strategic opportunities within our disciplined capital allocation framework. We are proud of the progress we've made on our journey as a young public company, and we are excited about the opportunities in front of us as we continue to build Veralto, and help customers solve some of the world's biggest challenges in delivering clean water, safe food and trusted essential goods.

That concludes our prepared remarks. And at this time, we are happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] We will take our first question from Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets.

Since we're at the start of the year, I think it's a good place to get synced with the water sector macro. Just what's your expectations on muni CapEx? And just related, any differences in demand trends from your municipal customers versus the industrial -- broadly industrial, commercial power, electrical, semiconductor and so forth? So just start us there, if you could, please.

Yes. Thanks for the question, Deane. What we see in the water quality markets is really steady demand. And I would say that we see that both across muni and industrial markets. Relative to your CapEx question, we are relatively insulated from fluctuations in CapEx funding cycles. As you know, 60% of our business is recurring revenue. We sit in the high end of the value chain where we are integral to the operation of the customer's process. They can choose not to use us, but the cost of failure, or the risk of failure to them is going to be high. So highly sticky business needed to continue to deliver clean water. And so we feel good about our position there.

Relative to the demand between muni and industrial, we see pretty good opportunities on both sides. Every year, we always see some fluctuations in which industrials are up or down. Currently, we're seeing strong read-through here in the industrial markets that really support data centers. So data centers themselves, precursors, which would include semiconductor, mining and power as well. So strong growth, as we had mentioned in our prepared remarks relative to those industrials. And then on the muni side, government funding continues to flow. So feel good about demand in both cases, and I think we're well set up here in 2026.

That's really helpful. And then just a quick follow-up. It's come up in a number of calls across the sector regarding DRAM. Given across both of your businesses and the level of automation, are you seeing any pinches in supply or pricing? And could you size that for us, if you could?

Yes, Deane, this is Sameer. I'll take that one. No, our exposure actually in dollar terms is very small to the DRAM side. So as we kind of look at it and size it, we don't expect it to be material at this point.

Our next question comes from Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup.

So maybe this one is for Sameer. Your guidance of 50 basis points of margin expansion ex In-Situ, which is, I think, right in your incremental margin algorithm. But maybe you could give us some more color into the puts and takes you're seeing? Because I think you'll be lapping tariff-related headwinds. I think you said in the past like by Q2. But Deane asked a question on inflation. It's out there in different areas and there are investments that you're making In-Situ. Is that kind of front-end loaded? Any more color would be helpful.

Yes, Andy. As you kind of look at the core business, we are guiding towards 50 basis points of margin expansion. A big chunk of that is actually pricing is driving it. And as you mentioned, some of the headwinds from the tariff-related friction that we had in 2025, those things will start rolling off. We're going to start seeing the impact of that in the second half of 2026 as we kind of look at it and model then. That's really offset by some of the investments that we continue to drive.

You heard from Jennifer a little bit earlier about the investments we're making the services as we're trying to expand that part of the business. And also just on the sales side as we continue to increase feet on the ground as we kind of think about the sales side. So it's really the algorithm for the core business is steady as for the long-term value-creation algorithm. So there's no changes over there. We feel pretty confident on that side.

In-Situ, a really great acquisition for us as we kind of get through some of the initial costs, especially in the first half of the year to integrate and some of the costs tied to the realization of the synergies. Those are the kind of really things that are driving the upfront impact. And on a net year basis, that's going to be 25 basis points. So those are some of the puts and takes as you kind of think about the margin expansion.

Got it. That's helpful. And Jennifer, you mentioned data centers are strong. I know in the past, you said it's still a relatively small part of Veralto. But we've seen a wave of data center orders here over the last couple of quarters for a lot of industrial companies. Could we see the data center wave be sort of meaningful for you guys in growth in '26? Or is it still too small? Maybe you could elaborate on sort of your TAM, and, sort of, what's going on there for you guys?

Yes, Andy, we don't size our markets publicly. And I would say that our sales into data centers are still relatively small. We wouldn't expect to see a meaningful contribution this year, although the aggregation of power generation, cooling towers, mining, semiconductor, right, it does start to add up if you kind of include all of the ancillary vertical markets that go with it. But data center specifically, again, small base of business, growing double digits, but not going to be a meaningful contributor to core growth this year.

We will move next with William Grippin with Barclays.

My first question here just was hoping to drill down into PQI a little bit and perhaps specifically, what you're seeing in that business as it pertains to this kind of high-protein boom that we're seeing. Could that really start to be a volume driver within PQI? And just any color there would be helpful.

Yes. Thanks for the question. Our CPG market tend to be holding up really well. They're stable. We're not seeing any changes in demand patterns, good linearity across the 4 quarters. And within that, we've got solid demand across some of our new product innovations. UV laser, we've seen some good interest there. Relative to changes in terms of food products and package size and so on.

Look, any time changes get made to what is being produced, it's generally a nice pickup for us, right? So the secular drivers around the proliferation of brands, the proliferation of SKUs, changes in package size, even regulatory influences, right, those are all positive drivers for our business there. So we absolutely feel good about changes to packaged foods to support changes in dietary requirements and so on. So I think on the coding and marking side, that's a volume game for us. So the more packages, the more coding and marking equipment and consumables that gets sold into that space.

So as far as protein-intensive consumer packaged goods goes, I think we're well positioned to capitalize on that.

Got it. I appreciate that. And then just one specifically on geographic performance in 4Q. If we're doing the math right, it looks like Western Europe may have actually been down year-on-year in terms of core growth. Do you have any color or commentary on the drivers there?

Yes. If you kind of look at the Western Europe, really, Will, that's driven by the impact of the 3 days if you start looking on a year-over-year basis. If you recall, we saw pretty solid growth in the Q1 across the regions, especially in the Western Europe as well because we had 3 excess shipping days. That's really kind of driving the year-over-year comp as you can look at the Western Europe. There's nothing otherwise on that. So on a full year basis, we feel pretty good if you kind of look at the growth in the Western Europe, really great execution by the team on the Water Quality and the PQI side.

Yes. Our recurring revenue business is really what drives that, right? So 60% of the business being recurring revenue is going to have a pretty big impact when you've got days fluctuation. We see that in the first quarter and the fourth quarter last year.

Our next question comes from John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe just digging into the guide a little bit. You're looking for mid- to high single-digit EPS growth. And yet your growth overall on the top line is kind of in line with what you've seen over the last couple of years when you put up double-digit EPS growth. So I guess, is there anything that gives you some pause either in the end markets or on the cost side that has you forecasting EPS growth that's a little bit more modest than what you've seen over the last couple of years?

Yes, John, thanks for that question. Look, as we kind of look at the guide overall, maybe just, John, start from the top for the P&L, for the core growth perspective, we expect to be in the low to mid-single digit as we kind of came out of the year. I think it just makes sense for us to be prudent. At -- there's still some moving parts from the macro perspective. But underlying demands are pretty good and pretty, pretty solid. So we feel pretty confident on the demand side.

But as you kind of move further down, we'll have the margin expansion of roughly 25 basis points, including the impact of the In-Situ acquisition, that really boils down to EPS growth in the mid- to high single digits. There's nothing material, John, anything on the cost side. So we'll have the top line growth and margin expansion, that's ultimately coming down. It's really -- the only other impact I would say on the EPS side is from the In-Situ perspective. It's going to be accretive to the earnings -- operating earnings from $0.02 per share. But there is a $0.04 dilution from the lack of interest income because of the cash being used. So that's kind of baked into the EPS as well. So that helps you do your math.

Got it. Fair enough. And then just a question on the data center opportunity and the market. I think recently, it became more clear that there is an opportunity for warmer water cooling as opposed to refrigerated water cooling. Can you help us to think about if that changes the game for Veralto at all in terms of how they target and maybe benefit from the data center growth as we look forward?

This is a great question, John. Liquid cooling tends to increase the need for Veralto solutions because it's really a smaller volume of water focused on high-purity fluids. And these need to be monitored along with ensuring sort of continuous chemical control and monitoring. So it doesn't really matter in terms of what the temperature of that water is. And even though in these cases where it's a closed-loop system, liquid cooling using less water, it's more valuable. You can think of it as more valuable water, right?

So there's precision dosing to prevent corrosion and biofouling. That supports our ChemTreat business. You've got continuous monitoring of ultra-low range organics such as TOC. That benefits our Hach business. And then you've got high-purity disinfection needs there, which benefits our Trojan business. So we do get this question from time to time, and it's really not a function of the temperature of the water. It's the fact that water is used at all. And the lower the volume of water you use, the higher the need to have precision control over that water to make sure that, that process is running well and not creating problems and other kinds of quality risks for the data centers themselves. So that's the way to think about it.

We will move next with Jacob Levinson with Melius Research.

You folks have done a couple of interesting bolt-on deals in the last 2 years. And I know you've got a new buyback authorization and the balance sheet is in a pretty nice spot here. But maybe you can just speak to your confidence in, maybe, getting some more deals across the goal line in '26. And any color around just the activity levels that are happening behind the scenes here.

Yes. Thanks for the question, Jake. We feel good about the level of activity we've got right now in our M&A pursuits. We've got full funnels, both on Water Quality and PQI, and continue to work on a number of different opportunities, which we do believe are actionable.

That said, we've got -- we're going to hold true to our discipline here in terms of making sure that we like the market, that we've got a top-tier asset, and that we can get it at the right valuation. We don't always -- there's a lot about that, that we don't control and timing tends to be a little bit episodic. But we are excited about what we have in the funnel. I do believe that we will be continuing on our M&A journey this year.

And relative to share buybacks, that just gives us another lever here in terms of the way to return value to shareholders should we see a period here where we're going to be a little bit lighter in M&A. But I would say even with that program in place, it takes nothing away from our ability to transact on our aspirations here relative to M&A.

Okay. That makes sense. And just another one quickly on In-Situ. It seems like a pretty interesting asset. I'm just trying to get a sense of what the integration plan might look like. I'd have to imagine it's maybe a bit subscale and a lot of these private assets tend to need some help operationally or maybe just need to be larger. So maybe you can speak to where the low-hanging fruit is or the biggest opportunities that you see.

Yes, great question. We're really excited about the In-Situ acquisition and certainly have plans to realize synergies on both the top line and the bottom line. I would say right out of the gate, we're most excited about the top line synergies, to be honest. We've got a good opportunity to accelerate growth. And as a reminder, In-Situ has grown 8% over the last 3-or-so years. We believe we can get that to low double digits here with the combination of the OTT portfolio.

The thing that's so attractive about this is that they are complementary product portfolios. So In-Situ is strong in water quality. So that would be the analytics measurements and environmental water. And OTT is strong in water quantity, which would be level and flow. And together, the product portfolio really snaps together like LEGO pieces. So the combined product portfolio is going to give us strength going for complementary channels, right? In-Situ is predominantly a North American company, and so we've got the opportunity to leverage OTT channels outside the U.S., including Europe, Latin America and Asia.

And then certainly, to your point, Jake, they're going to benefit from the VES tools, whether that's those being deployed on the factory floor for improved operating efficiency or those deployed for our commercial efforts and helping them really grow faster. We're going to also look to the cost synergy side of things. We will move in parallel with our top line synergy activity here, and these would fall into things that you typically expect.

So VES on the factory floor, improving operating efficiency, we're going to have opportunities to leverage global supply chain and our procurement teams through purchase price variance and in-sourcing activities, and then just globalizing or optimizing the global resources. So a number of things there. The teams will be busy and running at breakneck pace, but I think we're really excited about the possibilities here.

We will move next with Ryan Connors with Northcoast Research.

I wanted to talk a little bit about the water segment. It seems like the growth has been there generally. Obviously, you've got some great secular themes behind that, but it does seem like the growth has been more price driven and that the volume growth has been a little more tepid. So can you just unpack for us what's it going to take in your mind to kind of unlock the volume growth in water given that you do have such compelling big picture themes behind it?

Ryan, this is Sameer. Yes, as you kind of look at the water side, you're absolutely right. We feel really excited about the opportunity that's in front of us. The steady demand drivers, both in the muni and the industrial side continue. Overall, if you're going to unpack between industrial and the muni side, the muni side, actually, we've been doing really well. You noted some of those things on the pricing side, but the underlying volumes have been pretty good as well.

Industrial side, I would say it's -- when you start looking at things like the data center ecosystem, as Jennifer said earlier, I mean, those kind of industries, be it semiconductor on the power, all the ancillary systems around the data centers, they are kind of helping us drive the volume as well.

As you kind of look at our filings, you'll see a little bit of commentary around the chemical treatment side, which is the ChemTreat and the UV side. Those businesses are growing sort of solidly in the mid-single to mid-single-digit-plus kind of a range. And the muni business is a little slower grower, but it's a steady rock solid, as you know, given the stickiness of that business in the market.

So overall, as you're going to start look long term, Ryan, we're in a really, really solid place. Now 2025, just with a 3-day dynamic that moved between Q1 and Q4 has made the numbers look a little bit odd. But otherwise, if you look on a full year basis, we're doing really well. Full year basis, volume -- Water Quality was up more than 3%.

Yes. Okay. And then switching gears over to PQI. Also some great big picture themes there, especially with the combination now of Esko and TraceGains. But can you talk about how exactly you monetize that demand? Is it more subscriber licenses and existing accounts? Is it adding new accounts? Is it higher pricing for existing users? Just curious if you can give us some more color on better understanding how you actually convert that demand into revenue and earnings?

Yes. So our Esko and TraceGains businesses together are growing really well in the software space, as you mentioned, on the back of some secular growth drivers relative to digitized workflows across food and beverage and things to that effect. These are SaaS-based businesses, right? So we've got recurring revenue in terms of the mechanics behind how revenue is recognized there. I would say one of the things that was so attractive about TraceGains is that they had a leading position in mid-market brands. Esko largely has the enterprise brands. And so the cross-pollination of the 2 allows the TraceGains channel to bring Esko into mid-market, and the Esko channel to bring TraceGains into enterprise accounts. So there is a fair number of new accounts, new business that we see there, and it's the fastest-growing sector is mid-market.

But we also see product expansion happening. So Webcenter Go is kind of the backbone of Esko. We've now integrated the TraceGains AI offering into that backbone through a product called [ ComplAi ] that allows for automated AI verification of copied print in packaged goods. And as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, helps reduce errors -- transcription errors, costly product recalls and so on. So it's both menu expansion and its new customers.

We will move next with Nathan Jones with Stifel.

I guess I'll start with a fairly basic question out of the guidance. The low to mid-single digit is a pretty wide range. Can you talk about what would get you to the low end of that range, what would get you to the high end of that range? And then the 50 basis points core margin expansion, would that change if you were at the low end or at the high end, but can you do 50 basis points on low single-digit growth and maybe you get a little bit better than that if you get to mid-single-digit growth? Just any color you could give us on the width of that range.

Yes. Nathan, thanks for that question. As you kind of look at the top line from a core growth perspective, low single-digit to mid-single-digit range, really, as we kind of come out of the year, the demand underlying patterns are pretty good, frankly, Q1 out of the gate, the order patterns are looking pretty good as well. So we feel pretty good about the business. But there's still things on the macro side, you always have to keep an eye on and it's just the beginning of the year. So we just wanted to have a guide that's a little prudent and a little judicious at this time. Overall, we feel pretty good about the business.

As it kind of pertains to its impact on the margin side, you're absolutely right. Given the fall-through and the leverage you would expect on the system as we kind of move up, that should help us. But we do have flexibility to modulate some of the cost side as well, right, depending on whether we are trending on the low side or the high side. So I think it's good at this point to model in 20 basis points on the core side, but more to come as we kind of give the Q1 guide.

And I guess my follow-up question on supply chain moves and some of the regionalization of footprint, Jennifer, that you talked about in your opening comments. Maybe a little bit more color around what's been done there? I know some of that was kind of a tariff avoidance kind of things, so might be okay regardless of tariffs. Is there incremental profitability that drops through from that, that contributes to the margin expansion and that maybe offset some price that maybe you don't take? Or just how you're thinking about your ability to keep that improvement in cost?

Yes. I mean, principally, we initiated regionalization of our manufacturing lines and sort of regionalize our supply chain to certainly deal with the tariff environment that we are facing last year. As a reminder, these are all no-regret moves because we're effectively a light assembly house, right? There's no big capital monuments to replicate or move. And so it's fairly straightforward to kit up these lines and move them within a 6- to 9-month kind of time frame.

And so far as what kinds of moves happened, our Videojet business had a fairly large China manufacturing footprint. We've diversified that footprint into the U.K., into Europe. We derisked our Trojan business in Canada by adding footprint into an existing -- or expanding footprint in an existing location here in the U.S. We've had some Hach product lines that have been diversified as well. So all told, they were close to a dozen line moves there to really get a setup for any kind of trade environment that we would be facing going forward that would be more restrictive given sort of the geopolitical dynamics.

The things that we're working through now here are to make sure that we're not encountering any absorption issues, right? We got to make sure that those new line moves are up and running to full capacity and that we're operating efficiently there. So there's a little bit more work to do there. But again, these are no-regret moves. And to the extent that trade relationships continue to change, we just had one yesterday between the U.S. and India with -- that became favorable for us, right? So we're going to continue to be flexible and nimble and agile in how we approach the geopolitical tariff trade environment. And I think VES does a great job of serving us well here.

We will take our last question from Brad Hewitt with Wolfe Research.

Just curious in terms of what you're assuming for the price contribution to growth in 2026, both consolidated and by segment? And how much of that is carryover versus incremental pricing?

Yes. Thanks, Brad, for that. Yes, if you're going to look at the pricing that we have modeled into the guidance in 2026, historical range is 100 to 200 basis points. You should expect us to be towards the high end of the range this year. Part of it is carryover, as you said, from the pricing actions that we initiated, but we are implementing price increases on top of that as well, just as part of regular cadence. So that will put us closer to 200 range -- basis points range.

Okay. Great. And then as we think about organic growth phasing throughout the year, is it fair to assume organic growth accelerates each quarter through the year and then Q4 given the easy comp you're kind of comfortably in the mid-single digit zone?

Absolutely, Brad, as you're going to think about this thing. Interesting thing is that you're going to look at the sequential sort of buildup of the revenue throughout the quarter, it's pretty much in line with the historical averages, right? 24% of the total revenue in Q1 that if you look at overall, just because of the 3-day impact, the comps will be a little bit of a headwind in the first half of the year, but they become favorable in the second half from that 3-day math. But otherwise, underlying demand patterns, there's no changes.

This is Ryan Taylor. We appreciate everybody joining the call today. We appreciate you sticking with us a little bit past the bottom of the hour here. As usual, I'll be around for follow-up questions over the next days and weeks. Should you have any, just reach out to me. And thanks again for joining our fourth quarter call.

This brings us to the end of Veralto's Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2025 Conference Call. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Bo and I will be your conference operator this morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Veralto Corporation's Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Ryan Taylor, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us on the call. With me today are Jennifer Honeycutt, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sameer Ralhan, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Today's call is simultaneously being webcast. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Investors section of our website later today. under the heading Events and Presentations. A replay of this call will also be available until November 7. Yesterday, we issued our third quarter 2025 news release earnings presentation and supplemental materials, including information required by the SEC relating to adjusted or non-GAAP financial measures. These materials are available in the Investors section of our website, www.veralto.com under the heading Quarterly Earnings.

Reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures are also provided in the appendix of the webcast slides. Unless otherwise noted, all references to variances are on a year-over-year basis. During the call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we believe or anticipate will, or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those set forth in our SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from our forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date that they are made, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jennifer.

Thank you, Ryan, and thank you all for joining our third quarter earnings call today. During the third quarter, we continued to drive consistent growth through strong top line performance, disciplined operational execution and rigorous deployment of the Veralto Enterprise system. For both the third quarter and year-to-date, our team delivered mid-single-digit core sales growth double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth and over 100% free cash flow conversion. These results understore our ability to successfully navigate a dynamic macro environment, particularly with respect to changes in global trade policies. Our steady growth and improvement this year is a testament to our durable business model and the critical role our technologies and services play in supporting the daily operations of our customers.

Given the strength of our third quarter results, we raised our full year adjusted earnings per share guidance to a range of $3.82 to $3.85 per share and we raised our full year free cash flow conversion guidance to approximately 100%. Our financial position continues to strengthen, giving us ample flexibility to evaluate opportunities to deploy capital within our proven framework. Our capital allocation bias is towards acquisitions and our pipeline of opportunities is comprised of a mosaic of attractive targets across both water quality and PQI. We continue to take a prudent approach to evaluating opportunities consistent with our disciplined market, company valuation framework.

I also want to highlight that during the quarter, we published our annual sustainability report. We have approached our commitment to sustainability with the same rigor and discipline that we apply to operating our businesses by leveraging our VES tools for continuous improvement to drive results. We have achieved significant milestones in developing innovative and sustainable products that not only meet the needs of our customers but also support the health of our environment. Our commitment to excellence in product design and functionality ensures that we contribute positively to the world we share. In 2024, our products and services helped provide daily access to clean water for 3.4 billion people, treat and recycle 14 trillion gallons of water, saved 85 billion gallons of water and ensure product authenticity and safety by helping customers mark and code over 10 billion products each and every day.

Additionally, we are making progress on reducing our own carbon footprint, an important commitment from many of our stakeholders. We are proud of the steps we are taking to support our environment and help our customers progress their sustainable journeys. The work we do helps customers deliver higher-quality products accelerate time to market, minimize resource consumption and ensure compliance with relevant standards to improve overall operating efficiency. The essential need for our technology solutions, our durable business model and the secular growth drivers across our end markets fortified by the Veralto Enterprise System enable us to deliver long-term sustainable growth. The third quarter 2025 marked our fifth consecutive quarter of mid-single-digit core sales growth, consistent with our long-term value-creation algorithm. I am proud of our global team for the steady growth and improvement we have achieved while embracing our purpose, a reflection of our high-performance culture.

Looking at our third quarter results in detail. We delivered 5.1% core sales growth and 11% adjusted EPS growth. Our commercial teams continue to drive outstanding execution, leveraging their applications expertise to deliver growth through new customer wins and increased market penetration, while also capitalizing on steady demand across our key markets. Our core sales growth came in at the high end of our expectations and was broad-based across geographies in both segments. Water quality delivered 5.3% core sales growth and PQI, 4.6% core sales growth. In PQI, our marking and coding business continued to see strong year-over-year core sales growth in both consumables and equipment. And in packaging and color, our Esko team continued to drive core sales growth by expanding software solutions in the mid-market CPG segment.

In Water Quality, we delivered mid-single-digit growth across both water treatment and water analytics with particularly strong growth in North America. Moving on to margin performance. Adjusted operating profit margin came in at 23.9%, in line with our underlying guidance assumption. Adjusted earnings per share grew 11% year-over-year to $0.99 a $0.04 above the high end of our guidance range. Looking at sales by geography and end market, growth was broad-based across key verticals and regions. In North America, which accounts for 50% of our business, core sales grew 6.9%, led by high single-digit growth in PQI and strong mid-single-digit growth in water quality. Core sales in high-growth markets were up 4.3% and core sales into Western Europe grew 2.5%.

Taking a closer look at North America, core sales in PQI grew 9.2% over the prior year period. This growth reflects strategic pricing adjustments related to tariffs that were implemented in the second quarter along with higher volumes of marking and coding equipment related consumables and Esko software solutions. From an end market perspective, demand trends in PQI were in line with our expectations during the third quarter. PQI's volume growth through the first 9 months this year has been strong relative to the market. This reflects the disciplined cross-functional execution and rigorous application of VES tools to deliver on our strategic initiatives. And overall, demand was also in line with our expectations.

At Water Quality, core sales in North America grew 6% year-over-year, with broad-based growth across water treatment and water analytics. In our water treatment business, we continue to capitalize on strong demand for our chemical treatment solutions where core sales grew mid-single digits year-over-year. This growth was broad-based across most of the industrial markets we serve and was most pronounced in chemical processing and technology-related industries supporting artificial intelligence, including data centers. We are well positioned to capitalize on the rapid growth of infrastructure required to support AI growth. Our application expertise in water treatment is essential to helping deliver efficient water utilization and reduced energy consumption for hyperscalers and data center operators. We are also well positioned to capitalize on adjacent industries supporting AI growth such as semiconductors and power generation.

In our Water analytics business, core sales into North America grew mid-single digits with growth across both municipal and industrial verticals. Our water analytics growth was primarily driven by demand for our laboratory instrumentation and related chemistries. In Western Europe, core sales grew 2.5% with both segments up year-over-year. PQI grew 3.7%, driven by marking and coding and water quality grew 1.3% driven by water analytics. In high-growth markets, core sales grew 4.3%, highlighted by strong growth in the Middle East, Latin America and India. Core sales into China grew low single digits in both segments. Overall, we continue to deliver consistent top and bottom line growth in the third quarter. At this time, I'll turn the call over to Sameer for a detailed review of our financial results and an update on our guidance.

Thanks, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. I'll begin with our consolidated results for the third quarter. Total sales grew 6.9% on a year-over-year basis, to $1.4 billion. Currency was 150 basis points or about a $20 million tailwind year-over-year. Acquisitions that divestiture contributed 30 basis points of growth, primarily from TraceGains and Aquafides. Core sales grew 5.1%, with both volume and price up year-over-year in both segments. Volume grew 2.7% year-over-year and price contributed 2.4% to core sales growth in the quarter. Recurring revenue grew high single digits year-over-year. and comprised 62% of our total sales.

Gross profit increased 8% year-on-year to $844 million. Gross profit margin expanded 50 basis points to 60.1%, reflecting the benefit of our strategic pricing actions and strong procurement and supply chain efforts related to the tariff environment. Adjusted operating profit increased 6% year-over-year and adjusted operating profit margin was 23.9%, in line with our expectations. Strong year-over-year margin expansion in our Water Quality segment in the quarter was offset by acquisition dilution, strategic growth investments and tariff mitigation costs at PQI. Additionally, corporate expenses were up year-over-year, reflecting our full run rate costs. Looking at EPS for Q3, adjusted earnings per share grew 11% year-over-year to $0.99 per share. As compared to our guidance, adjusted EPS came in $0.04 above the high end of our range. This was primarily driven by stronger volume growth in both segments, higher operating margin in our Water Quality segment, and lower net interest expense.

Our free cash flow generation was strong in the third quarter. We generated $258 million of free cash flow at 20% or $43 million increase year-over-year. I'll come to the segment results, starting with water quality on the next page. Sales in our Water Quality segment were $856 million, up 7% on a year-over-year basis. Currency was a 140 basis point tailwind, and acquisitions contributed 30 basis points of growth driven by our Aquafides. Core sales grew 5.3% year-on-year. Higher volume drove 360 basis points of core sales growth and price contributed 170 basis points. Water quality's volume growth was driven by strong demand for water analytics and municipalities and water trimer solutions in our industrial end markets. And to a lesser extent, we also saw growth in UV treatment installations. Water Qualities recurring sales grew high single digits year-over-year, and equipment sales were up more than 3% year-on-year. Adjusted operating profit increased 13% over the prior year period to $225 million, and adjusted operating profit margin was 26.3%, an up 150 basis points versus the prior year.

Overall, it was a very strong quarter for water quality, reflecting the attractive secular growth drivers in our end markets and the ability of our water quality team to create value through VES driver execution. Moving to our PQI segment on the next page. Sales in our PQI segment grew 6.9% year-over-year to $548 million in the third quarter. Currency was a 200 basis point tailwind. Contribution from acquisitions was 30 basis points year-over-year, primarily driven by trade gains. This was net of the AVT divestiture, which was completed in Q1 2025. Core sales grew 4.6% with price contributing 3.3% growth, helping offset tariff-related cost increases. Volume contributed 1.3% to core sales growth. PQI core sales growth was broad-based across most of our key end market verticals and geographies. Recurring revenue grew high single digits year-over-year, led by consumables and software. And equipment sales were up just over 3%, driven by sales of marking and coding equipment. We continue to see strong demand for Videojet's refreshed technology portfolio. Equipment sales were strong across continuous inkjet and laser technologies with particularly high customer demand for the unite marketing system that we introduced at the end of last year.

Our UV laser marking system is an attractive alternative to thermal transfer overlay technology. Additionally, it is helping our customers transition to more sustainable, flexible, full packaging solutions. From an acquisition perspective, core sales growth for trace gains continued to exceed 20% year-over-year. We continue to invest in trade schemes to scale the business and further penetrate the CPG market to create long-term value. We believe the transition to digital, connected workflows in the food and beverage industry is poised for strong growth over the next decade. The combination of Esko and TraceGains provides us a unique opportunity to deliver value to our consumer brands as they digitize workflows with connected data across product development, compliance and packaging. Looking at PQI's profitability for the third quarter, we reported $139 million of adjusted operating profit, resulting in an adjusted operating profit margin of 25.4%. The year-over-year change in PQI's profitability reflects the impact from acquisitions, strategic growth investments and to a lesser extent, tariff mitigation costs. Specifically, we continue to enhance our manufacturing utility with new production lines in strategic locations to improve our ability to serve customers in every region. We are in the final stages of completing these product line ships.

Overall, we are pleased with the growth of PQI and progress on our strategic investments during the quarter. Turning now to our balance sheet and cash flow. In the third quarter, we generated $270 million of cash from operations. We invested $12 million in capital expenditures. As a result, free cash flow was $258 million for the quarter or 108% conversion of net income. At the end of the third quarter, gross debt was about $2.7 billion and cash on hand was nearly $1.8 billion. Net debt was just under $900 million, resulting in net leverage of 0.7x. Our financial position is strong and provides us the flexibility in how we deploy capital to create long-term shareholder value. We will remain prudent and disciplined in our approach to capital allocation. Over the long term, our goal is to continue to create shareholder value with a bias towards M&A. As Jennifer mentioned, we have an attractive pipeline of opportunities in both water quality and PQI.

Looking now at our guidance for the fourth quarter and full year. Our underlying assumptions have been updated to reflect our current fee of demand in our end markets. Our most recent assessment of trade policies and currency rates as of October 3. Beginning with sales. For the fourth quarter, we are targeting total sales growth in the mid-single digits year-over-year. On a sequential basis, we expect total sales to be roughly in line with the third quarter, even with fewer shipping days. This assumes a year-over-year currency benefit of approximately 3% and core sales growth in the low single digits. Core sales growth is expected to be negatively impacted by 3 fewer shipping days versus the prior year period. The fewer shipping days represent a little more than 2.5% impact on Q4 core sales versus the prior year period. For the full year 2025, our assumption for core sales growth remains mid-single digits for the total company. This assumes approximately 5% core sales growth in each segment for the full year. Favorable currency rates are expected to benefit full year sales growth by a little more than 1% and the impact from acquisitions and divestitures is expected to be neutral on the top line for the full year.

Looking at adjusted operating profit margin, in the fourth quarter, we expect to deliver approximately 30 basis points of margin expansion versus the prior year period. And for the full year, we expect adjusted operating profit margin in the range of flat to up 25 basis points year-over-year. But adjusted earnings per share, our fourth quarter guidance is $0.95 to $0.98 per share, and we raised our full year adjusted EPS guidance to $3.82 per share to $3.85 per share. We are now expecting adjusted EPS to grow high single digits for the full year. Finishing up our guidance update with free cash flow conversion. Based on our strong conversion through the first 9 months, we raised our guidance for free cash flow conversion to approximately 100% of GAAP net income. That concludes my prepared remarks. At this point, I will turn the call over to Jennifer for closing remarks.

Thanks, Sameer. In summary, we continue to demonstrate Veralto's ability to successfully navigate dynamic macroeconomic environments with confidence. Our high-performance culture grounded in VES has helped to deliver mid-single-digit core sales growth and double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share through the first 9 months of 2025. We expect to deliver another quarter of year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter given the essential need for our technology solutions, our durable business model and the secular growth drivers across our edge markets. Our financial position continued to strengthen in the third quarter, and we are prudently evaluating opportunities to create shareholder value within our disciplined capital allocation framework.

We are excited about the bright future ahead for Veralto, its associates and the opportunities in front of us to help customers solve some of the world's biggest challenges in delivering clean water, safe food and trusted essential goods. That concludes our prepared remarks. And at this time, we are happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

We'll go first this morning to Deane Dray of RBC Capital Markets.

Nice job on margins and free cash flow. Really good to see that quality coming through. Just start off with a couple of kind of nuanced questions. regarding the macro. Can you clarify about tariffs? You were -- there was a bit of a mismatch on the last quarter on the timing of pricing. So do you feel like you've caught up there and then anything about the government shutdown that you may be seeing on the water quality side, any ripple effects?

Yes, Deane, if you got to look at on the pricing side, at this point, the teams have taken really good actions from a strategic perspective, really working with the customers on the pricing front and you started seeing that flowing through the numbers, PQI a little bit more than water quality. So at this point, I think on the pricing front, we feel like we're in a good place to help offset the tariff any kind of -- but again, pricing is one of the elements. As you know, we've been working on the supply chain production changes as well to help offset any of the impact on tariffs at this point in a pretty good place, but the environment is volatile and we're staying on top.

Yes. And I would say relative to your second question, Dean, we watch the government environment closely. At this point, we've really not seen any material impact. So it's steady as it goes, we're running the business. continue to have critical needs for clean water, safe food and trust essential goods.

Good to hear. And then just a follow-up on the regions. Any specific comments about China, the pace of demand. There's been -- some of your peers have had some softness there.

.

Yes. I mean, China is effectively performing as we expected to. We had an easier comp here relative in Q3. But sequentially, if you look Q2, Q3, we're not really seeing any meaningful changes to our total sales in China. And I would say our team continues to do a great job of executing well in what has really become a more mature market.

We go next now to Andy Kaplowitz at Citi.

Good morning, everyone. So Jennifer, you've had many quarters in a row, strengthen your industrial-focused water quality business. So could you talk about the durability of that strength into '26, especially given your comments regarding data center-related growth. Can you size that particular business at this point and impacts that you expect moving forward?

Yes. Data centers for us continues to remain a strategic priority. We're seeing strong double-digit growth here from sales to both existing customers and new builds, mostly driven by the big 5 tech companies. As you know, data centers tend to consume large amounts of water and operators are looking to us to maintain uptime while reducing both water and power consumption. And so our involvement really starts as early as preconstruction with consulting services that we provide to maximize energy efficiency and water conservation, including the design of the water treatment train.

So great opportunity here in data centers themselves. But I would also say, if you zoom out, data centers are just part of the AI value chain. Water treatment that we provide to the market, these technologies play a critical role in chip manufacturing, power generation, mining and other critical raw materials needed to build and operate these data centers. So we play in a broad space here in terms of the entire value chain leading up to data centers. I would say, relative to the opportunity, very big opportunity for us. We'll remain strategically focused on it. It is a smaller portion of our business, but it's got substantial runway for growth going forward.

That's helpful. And then, Sameer, you lowered the 25% margin guidance slightly. Was that all PQI tariff-related pass-through or was it the incremental investments you're making? When you look out a bit into '26, would you expect to resume more normal incrementals, at least well into the 30s as pre-our algorithm?

Yes, Andy, as you kind of look at the full year margin guide, I know it does reflect the first 9 months of the performance and what we expect Q4. You're absolutely right as we're going to look at Q4 at this point, the tariff stuff should be lapping, but there's a little bit of a math impact us from the price and cost side, given you're offsetting the dollar impact. And as you know, in Q4, we typically tend to make some investments as we kind of drive the efficiency set up for the next year. So some of that timing will hit us in Q4 as well. So that's really kind of driving -- but most of that, Andy, as you're absolutely right, from the PQI side than on the water side, water has had a great year with a great fall through, and we expect that to continue.

But as you look at the margin side, right, for the full year from an EPS perspective, and as you go to look down the P&L, we feel really good. There's a little higher assumption on the sales volume, interest expense and some of the below-the-line tax rate should be benefit to us as well. So that's why we felt confident despite the margin raising the EPS guide.

We go next now to Andrew Buscaglia at BNP Paribas.

Hey, good morning, everyone. I just wanted to check on some of your trends were really strong in the quarter, especially in North America, especially PQI within North America. I was surprised to see that. how much of this would you attribute to pull forward? And clearly, I mean there's a lot of noise into Q4, but what's your sense on sequential trends in PQI if you're seeing any impact one way or the other from CPG markets?

Yes, we really don't see any meaningful pull forward. We've had exceptionally strong commercial execution in our PQI businesses in North America, particularly from Videojet. And Videojet's performance has not only been on the back of strong commercial execution, but also on the back of the products launched in the last year. So we're seeing strong CIJ and laser sales as well as sales in the secondary packaging. So customers are needing increased case level traceability tied to the Food Safety Act, that's driving some of that strength.

And we're just seeing higher share of wallet with existing customer base really driven by new technologies and go-to-market strategies on their part. So it's a great job by our commercial teams executing on our strategic price initiatives as well.

Yes. Great. And in water quality, margins there have exceeded my expectations at least this year and it seems like past investments are paying off. I'm wondering, this kind of -- was the case last year in PQI, but I'm wondering, going forward, do we need to see more increased investments in either segment? Or is this sort of a sustainable run rate for both segments in terms of margins into 2026?

Yes, Andrew, let's start with water quality comment first. On the water quality side, you're absolutely right, great execution by the team as we kind of think on the [indiscernible] side. Really, very disciplined the ES driven execution and you're seeing the benefit of that on the fall-through side. PQI this year had a little bit of a heavy lift as you're going to think about some of the tariff-related moves we had to make, so you're seeing that. But as you kind of move forward, the way to think about the PQI margin is, the incremental margins as we move forward. Should be driving that 30% to 35% kind of a fall through as you have laid out in the long-term value creation algorithm, and that kind of translates into '25 to 50 bps of OMX, right? So we expect that.

Now there may be some one-off items that we had this year that should be offset next year. So that should benefit. But we'll take all the puts and takes and in February, talk about the '26 guidance.

We'll go next now to John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets.

Maybe the first one just in water. So it seems like on the pricing side, you've kind of been gradually creeping higher. I guess should we continue to see that pricing accelerate as we go into the back of -- like into 4Q and into the early part of 2026. And then also, can you give us a little bit of color as to if there's much variation between the subdivisions in water.

John, just to clarify, you're inquiring about the pricing differences in the subdivisions in water?

That's right.

Okay. Yes. We don't really delineate there at that level. But what we will say is we've had strong price execution on the back of covering or some anticipated tariff activity, but both price and volume on water has been equally balanced, which is pretty fantastic in the environment that we're in. Pricing going forward is going to look a lot like our frame that we have talked about in prior calls relative to 100 to 200 basis points of contribution in the growth number coming from price. But having said that, we believe we're going to be in a strong position here to deliver price in the fourth quarter.

Okay. Fair enough. And then maybe just with regard to your cash flow. So you've you did incredibly well in 3Q, it looks like a solid outlook for 4Q. The cash is definitely starting to build on the balance sheet. Your leverage is pretty anemic at this point. I guess do you see opportunities that you think in the next 6 to 9 months, you may be able to actually get across the finish line when it comes to M&A? I know these are hard to time, but capital efficiency seems like it's starting to maybe drift a little bit lower just given how successful you've been with the cash you've been building up. So maybe a little bit of color on that.

Yes. First on the cash side and the free cash flow side, really proud of all the execution of the teams across our businesses as you kind of think about the quality of the earnings, working capital management and that kind of flowing into the free cash flow. So really great execution is really driving the cash generation and ultimately, as you said, cash is accumulating nicely on the balance sheet. Now our intention is to deploy that capital, to create long-term value. As you've heard from us in the past, look, the pipeline is pretty active. We are very actively looking at the number of opportunities, but we're going to stay disciplined.

Are you going to stay true to our framework of market company valuation. So more to come. But as we kind of think about our cash, we'll look at all the opportunities to deploy it, to create value for the shareholders.

We'll go next now to Will Grippin at Barclays.

Just one quick one for me, another one on M&A. I know it's still early, but I would be curious if you have any updates on your recent investment in Emerald Ventures and maybe how some of those early discussions or opportunities being presented to are working?

Yes. We remain excited about our partnership with Emerald, and they are vetting a number of technologies in partnership with us that address treatment monitoring and emerging contaminants. It's steady as she goes here. We continue to work with them on vetting and looking at opportunities there. And we'll let you know when we have something to report.

We'll go next now to Nathan Jones with Stifel.

Good morning, everyone. I guess first question, Jennifer, 6 months ago, when tariffs had just been announced, you were pretty excited about the potential for Veralto to use the disruption from Paris to gain market share. I'm wondering if 6 months later, you can maybe talk about any opportunities that the teams have taken advantage of and how that's played out relative to expectations over the last 6 months?

Yes. I think we're fortunate enough to really get ahead of this relative to our 3-pronged strategy of strategic pricing, supply chain and procurement changes and product line shifts. The product line shifts that we've made are really no regret moves, right? So moving product lines closer to where customers are offsetting tariff impact is something that we have been nimble in executing VES has helped support do that. Certainly, if you look at price volume balance here, it would suggest on the volume side that we're holding up well with regard to being able to continue to penetrate markets regionally where localization provides good strategic competitive advantage for us.

So as you well know, we've got a warehouse now here in North America for our Trojan business. It's headquartered out of Canada. They continue to have great opportunities here in the U.S. And so all of these sort of initiatives that we've taken here have gone the way we thought them to, and we're seeing good opportunity to be closer to our customers and serve them locally.

I guess my follow-up is going to be PQI and North America. I mean it's 3.3% of price in PQI. I assume that's obviously skewed to North America, given the tariff environment. So there's a pretty heavy pricing in PQI there. Maybe you could just talk a little bit more about any opportunities there are for nonprice mitigation actions in PQI. I guess the tariff impact was a little bit higher than I expected. And then does that present an opportunity to maybe mitigate some of the tariff impacts keep some of the price and have that drop through to margins as we move into 2026 Tax?

Yes. I would say relative to PQI in North America, we are seeing great balance between price and volume within our Marketing & Coatings segment. And that is largely on the back of Videojet products launched last year in terms of new CIJ and laser products, including secondary packaging products that actually tie to the Food Safety Act that I spoke about earlier.

So confident in terms of the ongoing sort of demand and stability of these products. And I think what we're seeing here in North America is those products that were newly launched last year are really starting to gain traction. So great execution by our commercial teams. And we will continue to monitor the environment as we go forward.

We'll go next now to Jacob Levinson at Melius Research.

Good morning, everyone. Just tacking on Andy's question earlier on the data center side of things. Is there any way you could frame for us the content intensity or the opportunity that you would have at Centre or Trojan relative to some of those other types of nonres facilities that they operate in? I'm just trying to get a sense of how a data center would compare to, say, a power plant or a chemical plant. I'm sure they all use a lot of water, but it's not entirely clear which ones would be more intensive for what you sell?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Jake. I think the way to think about this is, our commercial teams are really skilled at pivoting where the opportunities are in any given quarter or a year. We are seeing double-digit growth in data centers and in applications closely tied to data centers. We don't publicly disclose sales by vertical market, but we can say that we feel very good about our current position and our opportunity to continue to grow double digits in these areas going forward.

Yes. And Jake, the other way to think about it also is, as you kind of think about the applications within the data center, there are multiple touch points where our services kind of get into. Think about the data center, some of the key issues are around reducing the water and power consumption both. So we play a part on both sides of the equation. And also the other part of the data centers is to really think about the uptime, right? Maintaining uptime is critical in the data center infrastructure, we're all going to learn based on some of the news that you've seen in the last couple of weeks.

So as you kind of think about minimizing corrosion, scaling biological growth, there are tons of applications as you're going to think about and expertise that is needed in making sure the data centers maintain their uptime and our country team playing the phenomenal role in helping our customers achieve that.

Okay. That's helpful. And just one quick one on TraceGains. It sounds like that has been working out nicely for you. Maybe you can just help us understand the puts and takes on the deal as we come out, I think you've had it now for almost a year now. And I think part of the thesis at least was that there was an opportunity maybe to pull in some of traditional products into that smaller mid-sized CPG segments. Any color there would be helpful.

Yes. We are incredibly happy with TraceGain's performance and the integration here has gone well. They are now at their first year anniversary. And so their growth rate greater than 20%, which has been in line with expectations, will go into the core growth calculus going forward. In terms of of opportunity there. Both TraceGains and Esko have been working together to integrate the digital backbone here that will create a single source of truth for all stakeholders in both the packaging and the product development workflow.

So all of that is on track. We do believe that the CPG market is early in its digitization journey but there continue to be strong regulatory and consumer safety drivers there, making an attractive place for us. So TraceGains is doing great, strong grower for us. on track. We continue to invest in building out that business, but they are growth accretive to the profile.

We'll go next now to Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs.

Just one more follow-up. I know we've talked a lot about margins in PQI. But if we think about the cadence, it seems like we're 2 quarters into tariffs hitting margins in this segment. So do we maybe not really fully lap the tariff impact until 2Q of '26? And is that kind of the way to think about when -- from a modeling perspective, we start to see PQI margins start to expand again year-on-year.

And maybe just to add on to that, when you think about pricing in PQI, is that -- I mean, I would assume it's the biggest lever, but the increase is enough to get back to kind of recapture the 100 to 200 basis points of margin decline you've been seeing here at the end of the year. Or do you need productivity gains, mix, other factors to help there as well just any sense on the puts and takes there?

Yes. Brian, a lot of questions on back there, so let's go one by one, right? First, I think your instinct is right as we're going to think about when we start lapping up the impact from the tariff side from the -- all the actions perspective you're going to start seeing in the second quarter. I think that's a good way to think about that impact. But overall, if you're going to think about the margin expansion, look, price is one of the impacts when we look at price versus the raw material costs and that we call it the PPV that expansion all the time. That is one of the -- definitely one of the factors that we're going to move into next year.

But productivity is part of it, right, I guess we're going to think about the volumes that are coming through, they should be falling through at 30% to 35% kind of a range that itself should give us 25 to 50 bps kind of margin expansion as you're going to start looking at things moving forward. But there are some one of things as we kind of talked about the tariffs and the actions and the costs that come but mitigating those some of those -- one of those one-off things like that should be offsetting next year as well. So lots of moving parts, but we feel really good about where the business is, the new products that come in, the acceptance we're seeing from the customers and the volume gains that you've seen.

So really positive as we can think about our opportunity to expand the margins. to continue to expand the margins, I should say. So are you going to see us in February, kind of talking about that in more detail.

We'll go next now to Saree Boroditsky at Jefferies.

This is James on for Saree. I wanted to look at some reason for water quality. I think high-growth markets kind of underperformed other regions over the past few quarters, but it outperformed this quarter. So what are the kind of key factors kind of driving growth in these regions? And how do you see this slight trajectory like going forward for the next several quarters?

Yes. I mean I think we've had good strong growth really contributing from our high-growth markets. Certainly, China is no longer a drag here for us. First time in several quarters that we've seen growth from both of our segments there in China, and the team is doing a great job to execute commercially. We see continued strong growth here in Latin America. And I would say there's real upside and double-digit growth that we're seeing also from India and the Middle East.

India on the back of a rapidly growing middle class, what the infrastructure development there and so on. India still is a relatively small part of our overall enterprise as a percent of sales, but rapidly growing. And we've got a team on the ground there who's driving some great execution, both for our quality and for PQI. In the Middle East, it's -- everyone knows that they have considerable challenges with water and energy utilization and so on and so forth. So there's great opportunities there as they look to drive recycle reclaim water as they focus on how to make the water that they do have last longer, recycle more of it and so on. So we think the secular drivers here for our high-growth markets are going to continue to remain strong. And certainly, the focus that we've had on executing commercially in those target regions has gone well.

Got it. Great color and great to hear that. And kind of moving on to recurring revenue, it kind of grew strongly like high single-digit in the quarter. Can you kind of discuss the drivers behind this growth? And do you expect recurring revenue to continue to outpace equipment sales growth going forward?

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Yes. I mean I think you've got to look at the relationship between equipment and consumables or recurring revenue over the cycle. They're going to be modest changes in which is the faster grower. But I would say in the main, we've got strong growth from both right now as in the case of PQI on our coding and marketing business, strong printer placements, and the inks and solvents and consumables to go with them. Same thing that we see on the water side, great instrument placement as well as the consumables that go with them.

So we've got a very sticky business, as you probably know, with regard to consumables and their relationship to the hardware that they support. I would also say we're starting to see some higher contributions from our software-based businesses. So if you look at our packaging color side, where you're starting to see our SaaS and annual revenue start clocking in here with both TraceGains and Esko, those are starting to be meaningful contributors as well.

The only one more point I would add is that you're going to think about our instrument business as well, right? I mean there's a finite life, and that is a reoccuring business as well. So as you're going to think about the growth from the growth perspective. So that's nice add on as we can continue to move forward.

We'll go next now to Bobby Zolper of Raymond James.

Were there any variances relative to your expectations in water quality pricing?

No. I think look, pricing in general has been along the expectations, Bobby. As you recall, when we -- the tariff environment started earlier this year, we said we're going to be very strategic with respect to pricing versus one-off items being added tied to tariffs. So we work very closely with our customers. to make sure, ultimately, the goal here is to create value through a combination of price and volume, and that's kind of reflected as you're going to think about the overall core growth, both in the water quality and side as well. So we saw a little bit higher pricing in PQI versus water, but ultimately, it's a combination of both that creates long-term value, price and volume.

Okay. Understood. And what are your thoughts on the attractiveness of water metering as a platform?

Yes. I mean I would say -- we look at the entire value stream of where water is used, analyzed and consumed. Metering is part of that value chain. We actually are in the metering business today with mag meters in our magrometer business. smaller overall portion of our revenue profile, but we're actively in metering today.

We'll go next now to Andrew Krill of Deutsche Bank.

I don't think this was explicitly touched on. But for 4Q, I just was hoping you could get some segment level color on margin expectations, maybe sequentially as the best way to do that it? And also anything on core growth for the fourth quarter by segment? I know you said, I think both around 5% for the full year, but just wondering if any big differences for 4Q?

Thanks, Andrew. The 2 distinct questions over there. So let me start with the margins first. For the fourth quarter, we expect the margins in aggregate to be around 30 basis points. both segments should be driving the year-over-year expansion in the margin side. You're going to see that. Water quality is driven by continued disciplined execution. Frankly, they've done a phenomenal job in the first 9 months, and we expect that to continue in Q4. PQI should start benefiting from the reduced tariff-related costs and some of the operating efficiencies that we've been driving. So you're going to see that, but PQI should be on a year-over-year basis of as well. In aggregate, we should be in the 30 basis points kind of a [indiscernible] code on the margin side.

As far as the core growth, again, as you know, we don't give guidance by segment, but both segments are lined up pretty nicely and should be contributing to the growth that we've laid out -- and Andrew, as you know, we said core growth around low single digits. But just to highlight and reiterate what we said in the prepared remarks, we do have 3 less shipping days. So if you pro forma with that, the core growth across the portfolio is in the solid mid-single-digit range.

Very helpful. And then going back to cash conversion, again, very impressive in the quarter. Could you expand a little on like what went well? As we look forward, I think in the past, you said 1Q and 3Q often go below 100% conversion as you do your cash interest payments, just -- is there a chance maybe like you can hold the line were consistently going forward? Or should we still be expecting a more normal outcome of below 100 in 1Q and 3Q?

Yes, Andrew. As you kind of look at the free cash flow, I think it makes sense to look at it on an annual basis because interest payments are always going to be heavy in Q1, there's always a meaningful comp in Q1 payout as well. And then Q3, you're going to have a heavy interest payments as well. That's just an architecture of how our capital structure is, it's less about the business. Underlying businesses when you look at, Andrew, the cash flow generation is very consistent, very strong, high-quality earnings. So I think that's a way to look at it.

Thanks, Andrew, and thanks for everyone that joined us on the call today. This is Ryan Taylor. This concludes the Q&A portion of our call. We appreciate everybody's engagement and joining on the call today and we look forward to talking to you next time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Taylor. Again, ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude Veralto Corporation's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, everyone, and we wish you all a great day. Goodbye.