Day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the first quarter 2026 AMETEK earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will hear an automated message advising you your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Kevin Coleman, Vice President, Investor Relations, and Treasurer. Kevin, you have the floor.
Thank you, Stacy. Good morning, and welcome to AMETEK's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today are David Zapico, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Dalip Puri, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. During the course of today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements which are subject to change based on various risk factors and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ significantly from expectations. A detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may affect our future results is contained in AMETEK's filings with the SEC. AMETEK disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Any references made on this call to historical results will be on an adjusted basis, excluding after-tax, acquisition-related intangible amortization, and excluding acquisition-related cost.
Reconciliations between GAAP and adjusted measures can be found in our press release and on the investor section of our website. We'll begin today's call with prepared remarks, then we'll open up the call for questions. I'll turn the meeting over to Dave.
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone. AMETEK delivered an excellent first quarter, highlighted by double-digit sales growth, exceptional orders growth, robust core margin expansion, record EBITDA, and a high quality of earnings that exceeded our expectations. We also raised our full-year earnings guidance to reflect our first quarter results and the outlook for the balance of the year. Today, we also announced we signed a definitive agreement to acquire First Aviation Services, an attractive acquisition which strategically broadens our defense aftermarket capabilities. I will provide more details on First Aviation shortly. Let me turn to our first quarter financial results. First quarter sales were $1.93 billion, up 11% from the same period in 2025. Organic sales were up 5%. Acquisitions added 5 points, with foreign currency a tailwind.
Orders were outstanding in the quarter, with broad-based and meaningful growth across all AMETEK divisions. Overall orders were a record $2.2 billion, up 23% versus the prior year, and organic orders were up 22%, leading to a record backlog of $3.87 billion. Operating income in the quarter was $517 million, a 14% increase over the first quarter of 2025. Operating margins were 26.8% in the quarter, and core margins were an impressive 27.9%, up a robust 160 basis points versus the prior year. EBITDA in the quarter was a record $620 million, up 11% versus the prior year, with EBITDA margins a strong 32.1%.
Our excellent operating performance led to strong cash generation, with free cash flow to net income conversion of 107%. Diluted earnings per share were $1.97, up 13% versus the first quarter of 2025, and above our guidance range of $1.85-$1.90 per share. Let me provide some additional details at the operating group level. First, the Electronic Instruments Group. EIG had an excellent first quarter, with double-digit sales growth, strong operating performance, and a meaningful inflection in orders. EIG sales in the quarter were $1.26 billion, up 11% from last year's first quarter. Organic sales were up 2% and acquisitions added 7 points, with foreign currency the balance of the growth. Organic orders for EIG were up an impressive 25% in the quarter.
This growth was broad-based across all EIG divisions and end markets, with notable growth within our defense, power, and semiconductor businesses. EIG's first quarter operating income was $376 million, up 6% versus the prior year. Core operating margins were an outstanding 31.4%, up 40 basis points from the prior year. The Electromechanical Group also delivered excellent results in the quarter, with continued strong sales and orders growth, along with exceptional operating performance, leading to sizable core margin expansion. EMG's first quarter sales were a record $664 million, up 13% versus the prior year. Organic sales were again up double digits at 11%, with foreign currency a 2-point tailwind. Sales growth was broad-based, with our automation, engineered solutions, and aerospace and defense businesses all delivering excellent growth in the quarter.
Additionally, EMG organic orders were again outstanding, up 16% versus the prior year. EMG's operating income in the first quarter was $171 million, up 33% compared to the prior year period. While EMG's first quarter core operating margins were up sharply to 26%, a considerable 410 basis point increase versus the first quarter of 2025. I wanted to take a moment to expand on the strength and breadth of AMETEK's order growth in the quarter. The 22% organic orders growth reflects the ongoing strength within our aerospace and defense markets, as well as the continued strong growth across our automation and engineered solution markets. Importantly, it also reflects a meaningful inflection in orders for our process instrumentation and power businesses in the quarter, as the strong pipeline of opportunities we have been highlighting is translating into substantial orders growth.
Contributing to the order strength were several large orders in the quarter which help fill in our full-year sales outlook. These large orders are aligned with attractive market segments, including defense, space, power, and semiconductor, all markets where AMETEK is poised to benefit from strong and growing demand. Within defense, we are seeing broad-based strength, including within missile defense, UAVs, and naval applications. The growth in defense budgets is being driven by modernization of defense capabilities and the ongoing geopolitical conflicts, creating a strong global growth outlook for defense spending, including from NATO allies. Our aerospace and defense businesses was recently selected to provide a range of technologies in support of 3 UAV programs, 1 program in the U.S. and 2 with NATO allies. Products being provided on these programs include ruggedized thermal management systems, power distribution equipment, advanced sensors, and embedded computing app solutions.
Our EMIP business also provides highly engineered, specialized fluid transfer solutions for critical military and defense applications. In the first quarter, saw strong order growth across many key defense platforms, including in support of nuclear submarines. Within nuclear, we're also seeing strong commercial nuclear demand in orders. AMETEK businesses provide a range of highly specialized products to this market, including fluid transfer solutions, radiation detection equipment, and uninterruptible power solutions in support of nuclear power facilities. Switching to space and satellite communications market, our Kern Microtechnik business recently received a sizable order to provide ultra-precision machining solutions and manufacturing services in support of critical RF components used in low Earth orbit satellites. Kern's advanced precision machining solutions are targeted for mission-critical applications which require maximum accuracy, stability, and repeatability.
Lastly, our Abaco business, a leading provider of ruggedized embedded computing solutions, continues to see strong demand with a significant win in the semiconductor capital equipment market. Abaco recently secured an agreement to provide advanced computing technology to support AI-driven demand for advanced semiconductor tools. Abaco's orders were excellent in the quarter, with strong defense orders in addition to strength in the semiconductor market. The breadth and strength of our orders in the first quarter reflect the continued trust of our customers and our continued delivery of key technology-driven products that meet our customers' most critical needs. Before we move too far off the topic of key programs and our ability to deliver in the most critical and demanding of applications, I want to take a moment to highlight a particularly timely example of our differentiated technology.
AMETEK Sensors and Fluid Management Systems, a leader in advanced specialized sensing solutions for the aerospace, defense, and space markets, provided critical solutions used on the recent Artemis II mission that eclipsed the record for the furthest manned space mission. Our SFMS business provided thin-film pressure transducers that supported mission-critical life support infrastructure on the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. This application demonstrates our ability to serve even the most demanding of applications and our ongoing commitment to reliability, precision, and accuracy. Congratulations to the AMETEK Sensors and Fluid Management Systems team on this exciting success, and also to the four other AMETEK businesses, FMH, UEI, NSI, and Zygo Pixelink, that also supported the Artemis platform with specialized technology. Now, turning to acquisitions and capital deployment.
With our robust balance sheet, strong cash flows, and disciplined approach to capital deployment, AMETEK is well-positioned to continue driving long-term value through our disciplined acquisition strategy. We are managing a very strong pipeline of acquisition opportunities across a wide range of deal sizes and markets and are encouraged by the strong pipeline of high-quality acquisition candidates. As Dal will touch on, our significant financial capacity provides the opportunity to deploy well over $5 billion in capital while maintaining an investment-grade credit rating. Our top priority for capital deployment remains acquisitions, and we expect to remain active in this area. We were pleased to announce this morning that we've signed a definitive agreement to acquire First Aviation Services, a leading provider of defense and aviation MRO services, as well as proprietary part design and manufacturing.
The combination of First Aviation with AMETEK's MRO business will provide attractive market expansion opportunities and additional scale for our A&D aftermarket businesses. First Aviation is privately held and has six U.S.-based centers of excellence. They have approximately $80 million in annual sales. The acquisition is subject to customer closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Alongside this acquisition and capital deployment strategy, we continue to invest in our businesses to ensure AMETEK is strategically positioned for long-term sustainable growth. For 2026, we continue to expect to invest an incremental $100 million to support our growth initiatives, with the majority of this investment going into RD&E and sales and marketing initiatives. These investments continue to deliver excellent returns. In the first quarter, our vitality index, which measures sales of new products introduced over the last three years, was an outstanding 25%.
We'll take a moment to highlight an example of an exciting new product from our RTDS Technologies business. RTDS is a leader in real-time digital simulation of power systems, infrastructure, and hardware testing in the loop. Their real-time electromagnetic transient simulators enable detailed studies of power systems, allowing engineers to anticipate system and device behaviors that threaten the stability, resilience, and performance of the power grid. RTDS recently updated their simulator platform with new features, including a data center module and an updated workflow that provides more accurate representations of third-party power solutions. This innovation helps data center operators model the power electronics required for key components, such as the uninterruptible power supply systems and the variable frequency drive used in power and cooling systems.
This new product led to two new notable orders in the first quarter in support of data center testing applications from large power equipment providers. Congratulations to the RTDS Technologies team on this exciting new product development. I'd like to take a moment to discuss the conflict in the Middle East and how AMETEK is navigating this evolving dynamic. AMETEK has only a small sales exposure to the region, with approximately 2% of sales into the Middle East. Most of that small exposure is within our EIG process sub-segment and is tied to energy markets. We do not expect a meaningful direct impact on AMETEK given this small exposure. However, like everyone, we are not immune to the broader macroeconomic uncertainty. We are continuing to monitor developments in the region, especially for impacts on the energy market and potential spillover effects.
With all that said, I am confident that AMETEK will continue to navigate this period of increased uncertainty based on the flexibility and durability of our operating model and our proven track record of performing well in challenging environments. Shifting to our outlook for the balance of the year. For 2026, we now expect overall sales to be up high single digits on a % basis, with organic sales now expected to increase mid-single digits versus the prior year. With the strong results from the first quarter, diluted earnings per share for the year are now expected to be in the range of $7.94 to $8.14, up 7%-10% compared to last year's results. This is an increase from our prior full-year guide of $7.87 to $8.07 per diluted share.
For the second quarter, we anticipate overall sales to be up high single digits on a percentage basis, with adjusted earnings of $1.96-$2.00 per share, up 10%-12% versus the prior year. To summarize, AMETEK delivered an excellent first quarter. Our outstanding results reflect the strength of our portfolio and the resilience of our operating model. Our businesses are aligned with attractive secular growth trends and are well-diversified across end markets, customers, technologies, and geographies. We are leaders in niche markets where our differentiated technology solutions play a mission-critical role in our customers' most demanding applications. Our highly engineered products are designed into applications governed by strict regulatory and compliance requirements, creating high switching costs. We primarily serve customers in long-cycle industries with long asset lifespans, resulting in a low obsolescence risk.
Taken together, these advantages position AMETEK for sustained long-term success, and we see significant opportunities for continued value creation. Our culture is deeply ingrained across the organization. Our competitive positions are strong and continuing to expand. Our operating model is durable, flexible, and scalable. Finally, we are supported by an experienced and proven team that has consistently performed through a wide range of market conditions. I will now turn it over to Dalip Puri, who will cover some of the financial details of the quarter, then we will be glad to take your questions. Dalip?
Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone. As Dave noted, AMETEK delivered an outstanding start to the year, highlighted by excellent orders, sales, and earnings growth, robust core margin expansion, and strong cash flow generation. Let me provide some additional financial highlights for the first quarter. First quarter corporate general and administrative expenses were $30 million, or 1.5% of sales. For the full year, we continue to expect corporate general and administrative expenses to be approximately 1.5% of sales. First quarter other operating expenses were $1 million, largely in line with the first quarter of 2025. First quarter interest expense was $21 million, up $2 million from the first quarter of 2025. The effective tax rate in the quarter was 19%.
For 2026, we continue to anticipate our effective tax rate to be between 18.5% and 19.5%. As we have stated in the past, actual quarterly tax rates can differ dramatically, either positively or negatively, from this full year estimated rate. Capital expenditures in the first quarter were $25 million. For the full year, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately $160 million, or about 2% of sales. Depreciation and amortization expense in the quarter was $105 million. For the full year, we expect depreciation and amortization to be approximately $430 million, including after-tax acquisition-related intangible amortization of approximately $210 million, or $0.91 per diluted share.
For the quarter, operating working capital was 17.5%, a 60 basis point improvement versus 18.1% in last year's first quarter. Operating cash flow was $452 million, up 8% versus the first quarter of 2025. Free cash flow was also up 8% year-over-year to $426 million. Free cash flow conversion was strong at 107% for the quarter. For 2026, we continue to expect free cash flow conversion to be approximately 110%-115% of net income. Total debt at March 31st was $2.2 billion, down from $2.3 billion at the end of 2025. Offsetting this debt is cash and cash equivalents of $481 million.
At the end of the first quarter, our gross debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.9 times, and our net debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.7 times. We continue to have excellent financial capacity, with flexibility to deploy well over $5 billion on growth initiatives and our active acquisition pipeline while retaining an investment-grade credit rating. While acquisitions remain our number one capital allocation priority for use of our free cash flow, we also seek to provide our shareholders with opportunistic share buybacks and a consistently increasing dividend. In February, we announced a 10% increase in our quarterly cash dividend to $0.34 per share, our 7th consecutive year of 10%-plus annual increases in our dividend payout.
I would also like to note that we have enhanced our financial reporting this quarter by including AMETEK's gross margin reporting and a related reconciliation on our investor relations website. With adjusted gross margin at a strong 51% in the quarter, this enhanced disclosure provides investors with greater visibility into AMETEK's margin performance and additional details to better understand our cost structure and the underlying drivers of our profitability. Going forward, we will provide an updated gross margin disclosure quarterly on our website. In summary, our businesses had a great start to the year. Our exceptional operating capabilities delivered excellent revenue and earnings growth, robust margin expansion, and strong free cash flow conversion. With a proven strategy, significant capital deployment capacity, and a strong track record of execution, we are confident in our ability to drive further growth and value creation in 2026.
I'll now pass it back to Kevin.
Great. Thank you, Dalip. Stacy, could we please open the line for questions?
Thank you. At this time, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Deane Dray with RBC Capital Markets. Deane, you have the floor.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Good morning, Deane.
Hey, Dave, you normally at this point, take us for a tour of the key end markets, but your prepared remarks really covered that well, so I appreciate it. And you also highlighted the really small exposure to the Middle East. How about just the rest of the regions and maybe the idea of, are you seeing anything at the margin in terms of buying hesitancy? Certainly don't see it in the orders, but take us through the regions and any kind of sentiment in terms of macro pressures that you might be seeing.
Sure. I'll start with the performance around the geographies. We really had balanced growth. U.S. and international markets were both up mid-single digits. The strongest growth was in Asia. In the U.S., we were up mid-single digits. We had very strong growth in our A&D and materials analysis business. Europe was up low single digits. That's where we had, you know, strength in power, strength in our automation businesses, but modest headwinds from the Middle East. We had about, I'd say $15 million of discrete orders that, you know, due to safety reasons and disruptions that didn't ship during the quarter. That would've ended up a little bit higher, but that occurred and we have not seen any cancellation in orders from the Middle East.
In fact, we're seeing, you know, quotations to really, you know, rebuild infrastructure, the energy infrastructure. It's gonna be when this thing settles down. In terms of getting back to the geographies, in terms of Asia was up low double digits, driven by strong China. China was up high teens, and it was driven by our process in power markets. You know, across the board, you know, it was a balanced growth, solid, and all geographies really performing well.
All good to hear.
Yeah, we're not seeing any cancellations or delays or anything at all. In fact, March was an all-time record of any quarter for orders at AMETEK. It, it's strong. It feels extremely good, and April's not over yet, but I just looked at it and it's on target for another good month. So we're in full steam ahead.
Great to hear. Just a follow-up question, you are likely limited in what you can say. There were some unconfirmed media reports about a potential sizable deal you all are looking at. David, I don't often see your name in The Wall Street Journal. This is an asset we're familiar with, but the size would be bigger than what you typically do. We know you have that capacity, but just implications on a larger deal for AMETEK. You know, would it box you out of doing bolt-on deals over, you know, kind of the near term? Whatever you can share with us would be helpful. There's a lot of interest.
AMETEK policy is not to comment on market rumors or speculation related to M&A activity. You know, I just go back to what I said before. Our pipeline is strong. There's a mix of larger, medium, and small technology deals, and we're looking to create great deals for our shareholders. We announced the MRO deal today, First Aviation Services. We're really happy about that. You know, we have, Dal, as Dal have said, we have significant financial capacity that provides the opportunity to deploy well over $5 billion in capital and still maintain an investment-grade credit rating. M&A is our top priority for capital deployment. We mentioned a few quarters ago that that's the way we're gonna differentiate our performance over the next few years.
So, we are really engaged with a lot of different businesses and a lot of different opportunities, we're gonna make good disciplined deals for our shareholders, for sure. As you know, at AMETEK, acquisitions are the combination of a set of process, well-defined processes. Integration is our secret sauce, returns are very important for us.
That's all really good to hear. Best of luck. Thank you.
Thank you.
Stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from Andrew Obin of Bank of America. Andrew, go ahead with your question.
Yeah, good morning.
Good morning, Andrew.
You know, pretty sporty growth in orders. Just a question. You know, you highlighted large orders, and, you know, I appreciate that, you know, maybe some of them, you know, fairly lumpy. Do you get a sense if there's any pull forward from second quarter in terms of orders, and there's gonna be something unusually weak about second quarter orders given the strength in Q1?
Yeah, I don't think there was much pull ahead at all. In fact, if you go back and look at my last couple of calls, we were signaling that this was gonna happen. What you really saw is continued strength in our EMG businesses and EIG businesses just bopped. We were talking about them usually following EMG about six months or nine months, and it's happened. I don't, you know, I don't know some of the orders that we've got are for shipments to fill out the year, but I don't see any kind of pull forward or any kind of slowdown. That doesn't mean that we're gonna have a, you know, a 25%, 23% orders in the next quarter.
The markets for us, you know, we've created a business that's in niche markets where technology is really needed for key infrastructure, for key technologies, for key mission critical platforms, and we're just in the right place, and we're feeling good about the business.
Dave, how do you think about, you know, given your order cadence, your top-line outlook, you know, is fairly conservative, as it always is, you know, that's what AMETEK does. What are you thinking about sort of risk, consumer risk, and just overall macro risk in the second quarter? You said orders are good, but any red or yellow flags that you're seeing in your end markets so far, quarter to date? Are you adjusting, you know, the behavior in business units, any sort of business plans to maybe prepare for some turbulence? Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah. That's a good question. Yeah, I'd start with, we're obviously performing very well. We've had strong execution, disciplined operation, and we're gaining momentum across the portfolio. We feel very good about our businesses performing, but there's obviously some ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, and we're remaining prudent with our guidance. You know, we have places in our business where we're laser-focused on material input costs. We believe we're gonna be able to offset any inflationary costs with pricing. We expect to offset inflation, including tariffs, with pricing. But we feel good.
We're laser-focused on changes in the macro and, you know, with our distributed structure, we have business leaders out there close to their customers, looking at everything, and we're making sure that we have the right focus on it. From what we know now, you know, it feels good to us, we're laser-focused on what could be a bigger change. As I said, we're confident in our guide, we feel really good about the momentum in the portfolio.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andrew.
Stand by for our next question. The next question comes from Nicole DeBlase with Deutsche Bank. Nicole, go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the question, and good morning, David and the whole team.
Good morning, Nicole.
Good morning. I guess maybe just kind of piggybacking on the questions that were asked about orders already, sorry to, you know, dive into this further, David. Just on the, on the large orders, I think you mentioned that there were a few that came in during the quarter, but you're basically saying that you don't think that this order result should be viewed as one time. Does that mean that the large, if we look at, like, your pipeline of large order activity, it's similarly strong and you expect to book further large orders as we move forward?
Yeah, I would expect the bookings to continue to reflect some larger orders. You know, I think that what we're seeing is, you know, we had a period where the industrial economy at, you know, below 50 PMIs for an extended period of time. That's changing. We were signaling that's changing. Our EMG business picked up, and historically, EIG has picked up 6 or 9 months later. We said that the last 2 quarters, and it's just happening like we thought it would. EIG is just beginning to pick up.
I think the order strength will continue, but I wanted to highlight some of the orders that some were lumpy, and I wanted to highlight them both to, you know, let people understand the areas that we're in and their great technology and also to understand some of that is for shipments throughout the rest of the year.
Got it. Okay. Clear. I just wanted to spend a little bit of time on the medical end market. I don't think that was mentioned a whole lot in the prepared remarks.
Right.
Dave, could you just talk a little bit about what you're seeing there?
Yeah. I mean, it's about a little over 20% of our exposure. In Q1, we had a great quarter. It was up low double digits. Once again, it was led by Paragon. Paragon is just performing extremely well. For that full year, there's some tougher comps in the rest of the year. We have the full year, we expect mid-single digits, largely due to the comps. You know, we have other business in there, like our Reichert business. It also had a very good quarter. Paragon and Reichert led us, and the strength in Paragon continuing is notable.
Thank you. I'll pass it on.
Thank you.
Stand by for our next question. The next question comes from Andrew Buscaglia with BNP Paribas. Andrew, go ahead with your question.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Excuse me. Good morning, everyone.
Morning, Andrew.
I wanted to get your take on, you know, just kind of what's going on in the world related to your aerospace and defense businesses, given the, you know, heightened geopolitics. I know you guys have a number of niche offerings, so it's hard to know in real time what you see going forward. Can you comment on any impacts, positive or negative to A&D?
Yeah. Well, I think what we saw in the quarter, our A&D business continued strong activity. High single-digit growth in the quarter, the growth was broad-based. All segments continued strong demand with notable strength in our defense markets. Our A&D businesses are very well positioned to benefit from growing demand, given our broad portfolio of differentiated technologies. We now increased our outlook for the year. We increased it to from high single digits to up approximately 10%, that's with balanced commercial and defense activity. The way I look at it is, if you look at our 18% of the in A&D, about 60% of that is defense, about 40% of that's commercial.
Defense is knocking it out of the park. The OE part of commercial and the business jet market are doing very good. Our M&A, our MRO businesses that service airlines had an excellent quarter for orders. The one area that we're watching closely is some of the international markets related to aviation fuel availability and fuel costs. That's a small part of our portfolio, you know, like less than 2%. At the same time, we're watching it. Right now, we don't see. We have good backlogs, good execution, and, you know, I think that if we see something, it'll come in the flying, you know, airlines, the flying public first. Right now, we're not seeing it.
The key thing is the vast majority of our aerospace portfolio, we're taking our whole portfolio up, and even the part that we're watching closely had a fantastic first quarter.
Yeah. Good to hear.
Yeah.
You know, along those lines, you know, you make an acquisition in the quarter, First Aviation on the MRO side, which is interesting. I didn't see, did you disclose the price you paid or deal price? Then is there any other details? I think I saw $80 million in revenue, but any other details you can disclose on that?
Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'll provide some more details on it, Andrew. At the high level, our MRO businesses were largely commercial biased, and we were looking for something that had really added a defense aspect to it because of the strength in the market. We were really pleased to find First Aviation Services. It's a engineering-driven provider of aftermarket services and proprietary parts. Their primary market's defense. They also have some business jet and commercial pieces of it, but it's primarily a defense business. You know, they have about two-thirds of their business are on MRO service, and they actually have about one-third of it is on proprietary parts that, you know, we have businesses that have the parts and the services together.
We typically do best with them, so they're really into PMA and DER-approved repairs. You know, they add new capability to us, rotorcraft and fixed-wing platforms. There are a lot of good military programs. It expands our MRO capabilities to additional critical systems. Includes propeller blades, rotor assemblies, landing gear, some advanced electronics. It's a, you know, it's a sizable and growing proprietary aftermarket solutions business, strong engineering capabilities, nicely expands our defense MRO, and it just fits like a glove with our existing MRO capabilities. We're really excited and getting this business to closing and welcoming the First Aviation team to AMETEK.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Scott Graham with Seaport Research Partners. Scott, go ahead with your question.
Hey, good morning. Congratulations on the quarter. Dave, could you continue the matrix as you just did for A&D with this first quarter organic and full year for process, power and automation? Secondarily, I don't know if this is possible to do this, but would you be able to maybe carve out some of the larger projects that were in the orders and maybe tell us what, you know, sort of maybe the trend line for bookings was, you know, on that basis?
Yeah. Yeah, I'll start with the, I'll finish the walk around the company. I did it for aerospace and defense, covered it, some of it in my opening remarks, but there's some details still that is probably you're interested in. I'll start with the process business. You know, it was up mid-teens in the first quarter and driven by acquisitions and low single-digit organic growth. We have a solid pipeline of orders we highlighted during our last earnings call. These translated into broad-based orders growth in the quarter, and we remain encouraged by continued momentum and a growing pipeline of opportunities across our process markets. Now for the full year 2026, we're increasing our guide for process.
We now expect organic sales for process segment to be up low to mid-single digits, so increasing it from low to low to mid. We talked about aerospace. We're increasing it from high single digits to approximately 10%. Go into power next. Power sub-segment delivered low single-digit sales growth with strong record-level orders. Our power business continues to see strong demand across a growing pipeline of opportunities for power generation, backup power, data center microgrids, and power simulation systems. I highlighted one of the new products in the orders we see for power simulation systems in my prepared remarks. Looking to 2026, we continue to expect organic sales to be up mid-single digits for that sub-segment. Finally, our automation and engineering solutions, excellent quarter again with high single-digit organic sales growth.
Broad-based, both our automation and engineering solutions business and our eMet business, demand across attractive niche markets remains solid. We continue to expect organic sales for automation and engineering solutions business to be up mid-single digits. In terms of digging in on the orders, I was trying to, in my prepared remarks, do that a little bit. We talked about, you know, a big order in the semiconductor market from Abaco, where we're providing computing solutions. That's, we talked about the space satellite market that is really doing well, which we have specialized machining solutions that can make precision components like no one else. We're actually building machines, and we're doing some contract manufacturing for the low Earth orbit satellite systems.
I talked a bit about defense and, you know, what's going on in defense and our strength in UAVs and our strength in missile defense systems. I talked about the nuclear industry and both on the commercial and the civil and defense, very strong for us, and we got a substantial order for the submarine program. You know, these are, you know, these programs are things we're winning because of our technology, because we work with customers. These are highly engineered technologies. There are not a lot of people that can do these things, and we just think we're well-positioned for where the world's going. We're in the right places, and we feel really optimistic right now.
If I could just add, in terms of the order strength, as we said, it was broad-based, unless there were some large orders in the aerospace and defense area. Every sub-segment saw double-digit organic orders growth, and every division was up at least 5%. Automation was very strong. Really in process, our metrology and material analysis businesses also saw really strong order growth. It's really broad-based, and it really wasn't any. It wasn't driven by lumpiness in orders in certain areas.
Thanks a lot.
Our next question comes from Joe Giordano with TD Cowen. Joe, go ahead with your question.
Good morning, guys.
Hello, Joe.
There seems to be emerging concerns that potentially aerospace aftermarket, I guess, on the commercial side is peaking. It doesn't seem like there's any real evidence in your business of that. What are you kind of hearing, seeing, and what would you really be looking at to see if something like that was starting to form?
Yeah, as I mentioned before, that's the that third party aftermarket's the smallest part of our MRO businesses. You know, we watch it very closely and we have some specialized capability. The U.S. is extremely strong right now. We're involved in some retrofit programs that are driving the business, so there may be a bit of a counter-market there. In Europe, you know, that, you know, Europe and Asia, the MRO, you know, if there's a place that turns down, it'll probably be that area, so we're watching that closely. Again, this is less than 2% of our sales. The fact is we had an incredibly strong first quarter.
The order rates are continuing to have strength, but as the conflict goes on in the Gulf and there's a bit of a shortage in aviation fuel, we think the weakness may show up first in Asia, second in Europe, and the U.S. seems pretty insulated right now, but it'll be last. You know, that can all change in a week. So.
Sure.
You know, we're making the call the best we can, and right now we feel good. If we think there's any downside, it's extremely modest.
I was interested, you mentioned Abaco, the regular computers into semiconductors. I tend to think of that more as like defense-oriented field applications. Can you talk about like where, what they're, what you guys are doing there on semis and how that business-?
Yeah
Is fitting in?
Yeah. You know, Abaco makes, you know, advanced computing solutions. When you have the most precision applications to, that have to work in the most durable environments, you'll use the Abaco equipment. Along with the needs in the data explosion in defense right now, where everybody's more data to process and, in RF systems and things like that, it's a great demand driver. Abaco also has a business where, you know, we're selling that technology to the semiconductor market. Really in the quarter, there was a semiconductor tool manufacturer that's using the, you know, the semiconductor tool manufacturer is dealing with a ramp-up in demand from AI and everything that's going on in the semiconductor market, and they're using the Abaco computing technology to control their tool.
We were pleased to, you know, book that order in the quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you, Joe.
Our next question comes from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research. Nigel, go ahead with your question.
Thanks. Good morning. Obviously a lot of ground covered here, but thanks for the question. The guide increase, you know, from mid to high singles to high singles and obviously the bump in core growth as well, is that in the realm of 2 points of sales accretion versus the prior plan? That's how I'd think about it. Where I'm going with this is twofold. One, the $0.07 increase in the guide, obviously a nice surprise, but seems light if it is a 2-point increase in sales. Then secondly, with the EIG, I'm just curious, given the order strength and the broad-based nature of the order strength, I'm just wondering how would you think about the second half core growth profile for EIG?
Yeah. The first point is probably an increase more like a point and a half, it was really driven by process and Aero. That kind of, you know, puts that in the bucket. Really, I go back to my, you know, original comments. It's a conservative guide. We have a strong start to the year, excellent execution. Orders were outstanding, you have the geopolitical uncertainty. We balanced it all and, you know, we're very confident in our guide. We think it's prudent to do what we did.
Okay. No, it certainly does seem conservative. Then, maybe going back to Deane's question at the front end around, obviously, you don't speculate on, you know, press rumors. I'm just curious, you know, AMETEK's evolved from doing a lot of bolt-on deals to much larger deals under your leadership. I'm just wondering, you know, how you view the risk reward of larger deals versus small bolt-ons. Just I'll leave it open like that.
I think there's an important risk reward, and you have to make sure what you're buying is matches our strategy, matches what we're trying to do, and we can add value to it. We have naturally increased the size of deals over the past 10 years. We're still focused on niche markets. We're still focused on the areas that we're currently operating in. You know, I think that, you know, I plan on continuing to expand a lot. You know, it's, we got an unblemished record. We've never had a write-off of goodwill. We're very conservative. We look to get a return on every deal. Returns on capital are very, very strong for us. It's part of our basic operating model.
That's what we do. Our growth model is to add M&A to our portfolio of niche businesses. We don't have any over-dependency on any one market, any one technology, any one customer. We just think we have a bulletproof model that's robust, and we'll continue to add acquisitions. In no way are we gonna add an acquisition that's the size of AMETEK, and no way will we add an acquisition that's half the size of AMETEK. We're still looking at these, I'll call them bite-sized deals that are a small percentage of our market capitalization. We're gonna continue to do that. The environment for us is providing a lot of opportunities for us. We're assessing a lot of opportunities.
We haven't made a decision on any of them, but we're gonna pick the ones that we add the most value for our shareholders.
Got it. Okay, thanks, Dave. Appreciate that.
Our next question comes from Julian Mitchell with Barclays. Julian, go ahead with your question.
Hi. Thanks. Good morning. Maybe just moving away from the top line for a second, looking at operating leverage and kind of incremental margins. Is the sort of guide based off a steady improvement year-over-year in operating leverage as you go through 2026? You know, just wanted to clarify that.
Yeah.
If you see any movement in kind of price net of cost within the year moving around.
Right. So if you want to dig into margins, Julian, in the first quarter, we had excellent operating quarter. Our core margins, so we take out acquisitions and we take out FX, they were up 160 basis points. They were just outstanding. If you look at both of our groups, EIG had core margins up 40 basis points, driven by excellent productivity. EMG reported core margins up 410 basis points. They got excellent productivity, plus leverage from the excellent sales growth. If you want to dig into that and say, "What were the incrementals? On a dollar of sales, what were the incrementals?" Our incrementals were greater than 50% for the company.
When you back out the acquisitions and you back out FX, core incrementals were up 50%, both on the whole company. EIG core incrementals were greater than 50, and EMG core incrementals were greater than 50. Really strong. You know, related to the guide for the year, we're expecting 35% incrementals and core margins will be up around 50 basis points. You know, again, I'll go back to it's a prudent guide. There's a lot of uncertainty out here related to, you know, potential inflation and things like that, we're laser-focused on. Performing extremely well. Plan to continue performing very well for the year, and those are the numbers, and they're outstanding in the quarter.
We plan to continue driving it forward, and we have a track record of being able to navigate through changing conditions, and we're laser-focused on what we think we need to do.
That's very helpful. Thank you. To circle back to the EMG segment and the top-line outlook there. As you noted earlier, you know, for medical specifically, you've got tough comps later in the year. The overall EMG segment, the comps get very tough on sales in the 2nd half. At the same time, your orders are growing double-digit organic still. Just wondered sort of are you kind of baking in like a mid-single-digit exit rate on organic growth for EMG just because of the comps? Is that the right way to look at it?
Yeah, you're in the ballpark. You're in the ballpark. That's the way I look at it.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Kevin Coleman for closing remarks.
Thanks everyone for joining our call today. As a reminder, a replay of today's webcast can be accessed in the investor section of ametek.com. Have a great day.
Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.