Welcome back. We're very excited to have Parker-Hannifin with us. We've got Todd Leombruno with us, who is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Parker. Todd, as I make my way over to you, let's just start out and just talk about sort of, you know, current what's going on, and then we can get to more exciting things. But there's obviously, you know, some uncertainty out there, macro landscape in general. But your industrial order rates did inflect a bit in fiscal Q2. Your distributors, as you've been saying, are pretty positive, embedded in your fiscal 2025. There's a bit of a recovery starting in Q4 2025. So maybe just update us on sort of any changes in order patterns in January and February, confidence level in that late 2025 industrial recovery.
Yeah, fantastic. So thanks for having us. It's great to be here. It's always nice to get out of Cleveland, even if it's just for a day, to at least feel some of the warmth. I do have to apologize in advance. I have a little bit of a sore throat. When we left Cleveland, it was six degrees. So if I lose my voice, you might have to tap dance up here.
I'll just answer my own questions.
But listen, I also don't want to disappoint anyone. I'm not here to talk about January or February orders or talk about our FY 2026 guidance. But what I will tell you is, you know, the company has never been operating at the levels that we've been at. We see great future opportunities for us. We've never been more levered towards the aerospace markets. You know, the total exposure of the company is 35% now. We still love the aerospace or the industrial side of the business. One thing that people sometimes forget is the technologies that we have in the aerospace business and the industrial business are exactly the same. They just happen to be on things that leave the ground versus things that stay on the ground.
So your question about order rates, we were certainly happy to see orders turn positive, really across the board this last quarter. It was six quarters of negative year over year order comparisons, at least in our industrial businesses. Aerospace continues to be robust across every aspect of the aerospace business that we are a part of. And we've looked at this for decades. And historically, when orders do go negative, the average that they stay negative happens to be six months. The longest was seven when we were in the financial crisis and when we were in the COVID and subsequent supply chain.
Six quarters, by the way, Todd, right?
Yes, correct. So we just finished six, and that turned positive. So that was really nice for us to see. I thought we were pretty clear on the earnings call. That hasn't really materialized into shippable backlog, at least not in our Q3 and the remainder of our FY 2025 fiscal year. But we are positive that that's a good sign and that we think it's a good positive for the industrial side of the business going into FY 2026. Where we have seen some signs of life have been in the semicon businesses in Asia. You know, that's a small market for Parker in total, but it's a bigger percentage in Asia.
Some of the longer cycle businesses, you know, one of the things that sometimes is confusing for people is our filtration and our engineered material businesses do have exposure to aerospace and markets, but we keep those in those technology-based groups, and those get reported in the industrial business. Those have also been positive, and then we've seen some bright signs in the HVAC refrigeration markets as well, and that's really what's driving it. We know that the rest of the business is on the verge of turning positive. The sentiment is positive in our distribution network. We clearly do think destocking has played its way out in that channel. On the OEM side of the business, there's still pockets of destocking that probably will continue. Quite honestly, we've been wrong.
We thought it would have already been done, but this year has been a story of just the slight delays, so it keeps kind of getting moved out of quarter- after- quarter, and we're feeling good that we're closer to the end than the middle of that.
Todd, that's helpful. And so maybe just, again, just addressing the geopolitical situation, you talked about Parker's ability to manufacture local for local. You'd be ready for a world with significant new tariffs. But at this point, what are you doing in reality? How much can you tackle tariffs with strategic pricing? How do you think about the impact on Parker's business?
Yeah, so obviously we're a global company. Our team members, we always ask them to kind of rise up over the noise that you see across the media landscapes. And the international businesses are a big piece of the company, there's no doubt. The way we grew internationally was with our customers. So as our customers became more global, we always have felt that if you can serve them locally, if you can convert your product in local currencies, buy your product in local currencies, invoice your product in local currencies, that is a better way to do business. It creates a hedge so the currency doesn't become such a drag on the financial statements. And that's really the way the company is structured. So labor is such a small portion of the cost of our product. We've never chased this low labor as it moves around the globe.
And we're in region for region. So I would tell you, we are not making any product in China that we ship anywhere outside of China. That is in China for China. And the only thing that we would move into another region would be if we don't have the technical capabilities yet in that region, or if there's some kind of IP protection that we might be concerned about. But that would be a small portion of the total. So we've been through tariffs before. It does create a lot of work. It does create a lot of noise in the business. There is no doubt about that. But we treat that just like we treat any other element of cost. We're fiercely decentralized as an organization. We have this operating strategy. We call it the Win Strategy. We've had various versions of this over the last 25 years.
It really focuses on making sure we know what our costs are. We control those in a world-class manner and that we're getting value from the pricing standpoint, not based on just what the cost is, but also what the value is we're bringing to the customer. I think you saw us fare well through the last tariff cycle, the inflationary period, the supply chain challenges. We did that, I think, better than most. That's what we're going to do again. We don't have a lot of exposure to tariff risk, but I will tell you, it's been fast and furious. Every time one of the orders comes out, our team is, by the time I get in the office the next day, it is analyzed and we have a plan.
I do believe that we will make sure that that's not a material issue for us from a margin standpoint. I don't think you've ever heard us use that as an excuse, and our plan is to not use that as an excuse going forward.
Yeah, no, that's good information. So Todd, maybe just stepping back, you mentioned the Win Strategy. It's obviously evolved over time. You've done a great job on the margin side using Win. So maybe talk about sort of where it is today and where it could go. I think it's helped you tailor products more to customers, simplify the business. So how much more runway is there in terms of simplification? And how could it help you in case growth still is a little lower than you think? How could it help you drive that incremental margin, you know, 30%+ ?
Yeah, it is a powerful tool. I think it's what sets us apart from anyone else. If you look at our performance over the last number of years, you pick which year you want to snap at chalk line. The Win Strategy has been the driver that has helped us produce those results. There's no doubt. We are in version three of the strategy, the official version three of that strategy, and there is still a long way to go on every one of those items. If you look at all the detail in that strategy, every one of those things is a growth enabler or a margin enhancer, and it really does work, so we feel really confident that it's the right strategy and that we can execute it better than anyone else. There's a lot of things in that strategy that continue to evolve.
One of the things that really has been a newer element to that has been what we call strategic positioning, where we really have empowered our decentralized businesses to reallocate their resources, not add resources, but reallocate the resources that they have in the business, and they can focus those on end markets or end technologies, product technologies that they have a greater chance of growth at, a higher margin profile, and that has been part of what has helped us expand margins, and if you look at what we're going to do this year, we just guided to 25.8% adjusted segment operating margins. That will be 90 basis points of improvement in a year where we have really relatively low organic growth, positive on the aerospace side, but negative on the industrial side of the business, which is still, you know, ballpark 70% of the company.
And to be able to expand margins and earnings in that environment is something that we couldn't have done five, 10, 15 years ago. And I think the team is really proud of that. You know, the reason we called it the Win Strategy, you've followed us for a long time, was the concept that, you know, people like to Win. You'd rather win than lose. And boy, wouldn't it be nice if you knew you were winning every day that you came into the office. And that's really been the driving force behind our decentralization, behind our segmentation. And really, you know, more recently, our target setting, our achievement of those targets, and then our creation of new targets. We've never been more aligned as a company. We've never had it more cascaded across all of our businesses. And we have an unbelievable culture within the company.
And I know every company probably gets up here and says that, but ours really is this caring, compassionate, but competitive nature. And, you know, we are awesome at ranking and filing every one of our businesses, comparing them to themselves, comparing them to their competition. And, you know, no one wants to be below the average on that. So it's been a nice driver in our performance over many years.
Todd, you mentioned 25.8% margin for this year, right? Like, you know, I won't pester you too much on 26. You kind of set that up. So that's okay. But you do have the 29 targets out there. And you know, you set those about a year ago. So maybe just talk about your progress so far, because your margins, I mean, I think your target is 27%.
Correct.
So you seem like you're making a lot of progress in a short amount of time. So maybe just talk about that. 4%-6% annual growth, you know, in terms of revenue and 10% adjusted EPS growth. So like, I'm not going to ask you to change them unless you want to tell me I'm here.
No, I'm not here to change those targets.
But how do you feel in terms of staying on the course? Are you ahead in any way? Or how do you feel about that?
You know, first of all, those are our targets. We feel really good about those things. I'll tell you, when we put those targets on paper and when we put the plans behind those targets on paper, they do not feel like easy targets by any stretch of the imagination. The team has outperformed, and we're off to a great start. There's no doubt. Better than we originally expected. There's no doubt. That is with the industrial business on a negative growth trajectory for the year. Obviously, it gets a little bit easier when growth is positive, not negative. Aerospace is booming right now. All things are totally positive with that. That makes things a little bit easier. You know, we guided this year 50 basis points. That's the highest that we've ever guided in the history of the company.
So I know our performance has been stellar over the last couple of years, but what we're really focused on right now is making sure we do the right things for long-term cost structure, long-term margin expansion, and right now, we're marching towards that 27%, and I know we're going to reach it. I know we will set a new target. That is not the end of the target, but we probably need a little bit more time before we speak to that.
I figured you'd say that, Todd. So just as I think about the pieces, though, a little bit more, right? Basically, your investor that you talked about to get to that 27%, you thought about mega synergies, utilizing the Win Strategy, volume leverage. Clearly, it's not volume leverage that's helping you on the industrial side, but maybe on the aero side. So maybe what is so far ahead of your expectations, or at least how do you think about the pieces, you know, given operating leverage on the industrial side is not helping you?
Yeah, it's a great question. People ask this all the time, "Hey, what is it? What are the top two things? What are the top three things?" It really is a combination of all of these things. Meggitt has been a wonderful addition to the company. It has outperformed in ways that, you know, we did not have in that model. A lot of that has been volume related, but a lot of it has also been synergy capture, and it has been a great cultural fit to the company. It has totally fit our business model. It has helped us become more aftermarket exposed in the aerospace business specifically, and, you know, we'd do that deal over and over again every time if we could.
On the industrial side of the business, what Jenny has really brought to the table is the expectation that, you know, you have the responsibility to control your business and use the Win Strategy to improve your margins, to take cost out of your business, to grow differently no matter what the environment is, right? So, you know, if you look just at the industrial side of the business, in times that we have been through this amount of negative year-over-year order comparisons, first of all, those declines would have been much deeper from a percentage standpoint, much shallower this time, and we would have definitely been much more cyclical when it comes to not just the top line, but the bottom line, and that has improved over a long period of time, but there still was a decline.
If you look at what we're doing this year and last year, for that matter, both businesses in the industrial portion are operating at record levels. So we feel really good about that. And it gives us conviction that there is more that we can do. So we haven't, you know, we haven't got to the point where there's nothing left we can do on margins. There's plenty of things we can do. This concept of continuously assessing your bottlenecks or your pressure points is real. And over time, there's been a structural change to the company. The portfolio additions have been very beneficial. And it really has changed what people think is possible. You know, I tell the story in one of my previous jobs, we had, it's kind of funny to even say it, we had a 15% segment operating margin target.
Quite honestly, that was. I've been with the company for 30 years. That was kind of viewed as an aspirational target. Like if you had the best market share, if you were in a division that we had pricing power, if you had, you know, greater than 50% aftermarket exposure, you might be able to get to 15%. You look at that now, and it's ridiculous. These are the same businesses that we had then that are now doing 25.8% segment operating margins adjusted for amortization, of course. If you look at that, it's a minor difference from where we were at. Every one of these businesses, every portion of the company has been part of that margin expansion walk. It really has changed what people think is possible. I had that first job of moving those targets.
And when we set the targets, those are cascaded across every business in the company. And I'll tell you, those conversations were difficult. You know, people thought we were going to damage the business and lose share and go out of business. And that was a tough conversation. When we went from, you know, we went from 17%-19%, a little bit of an easier conversation. We started adjusting. We went to 21%. Now we're at 27%. And when I have those conversations with those business leaders, they agree with it. They get it. And they say, "Hey, we'll get it done." And there's no argument whatsoever because they just have seen what's possible.
Just one follow-up there, Todd. Like, you know, a lot of times in industrials, as you get up to, you know, that 30 number or something, it's like the law of large numbers starts to catch up with you. That doesn't seem to be what you guys are seeing in your businesses.
We're very cognizant of that, right? And we know that there is a limit. We haven't felt like we've pressed that limit yet. You know, what I like to tell people is when you see our numbers, 25.8%, what you got to remember in there is that's the average, right? So we have businesses that are way above that, and we have some that are below that. And what we kind of do differently today than what we used to do decades ago was we would focus on the lowest ones and try to get the lowest ones to be less dilutive. And maybe the ones that were at or above whatever the target was, maybe those divisions didn't get as much attention. Everyone gets the same amount of attention now. And everyone has to be part of driving that improvement across the business. And it clearly has worked.
Yeah, no, that's interesting. So I want to focus more closely on your domestic industrial businesses. You know, we talked about already orders turned positive, but that's from longer cycle businesses. In-plant and industrial markets still kind of stagnant. Off-highway and transport are still kind of drags. I think Jenny said that she expects, for instance, off-highway to stay weak through the end of the calendar year. But if you think about your core in-plant and industrial business, at what point did they need to start restocking or showing some signs of life, given they've been very careful with the ordering patterns, I think, for really, you know, as we talked about, six quarters?
Yeah, well, you're dead right on all of those issues. What we've seen positive on the industrial side of the business, I mentioned HVAC and refrigeration a little bit. Obviously, the aerospace businesses that are in the industrial segment have been positive. Semicon, mainly Asia, but a little bit in North America as well. I think you're right. On the in- plant and industrial, that probably is the end market that has the highest potential and highest probability to rebound first. A lot of that, you know, has a mix that goes through our distribution network. We feel like they're poised to react and act on that. A lot of the destocking that we speak to in the OEM channel is around those off-highway end markets, construction, ag, and we expect that to continue. I think there's positive signs out there.
I think we just need another quarter or two of this to continue. The other thing, I don't think we mentioned it here, is on all that analysis on our orders, when they turn positive, they have never turned back to negative. So there's never been like a head fake on after, you know, four or five, six quarters of negative year-over-year comparisons. So we have history on our side there. So we're not expecting that to continue. But we've always felt that this will be a gradual recovery. You know, I was talking earlier that the decline has been less severe. That's the same story that we've seen there. So we're not expecting the rebound to be any different than the decline has been, and that probably will be gradual as time goes by.
Todd, that's helpful, and then just focusing, I want to focus on, because last time on this call, you were asked about mega projects, so I'm going to focus on it from a data center and not data center, because, like, I want to talk about your data center business. But before we get there, from what I see, right, like, mega projects still in the early going. A lot of companies talk about it, but they don't seem to be helping your North American business growth yet, you know, outside of data centers, and so what are you watching for? And when do you think these mega projects can start to help your industrial business?
Yeah. I hear what you're saying. This concept has been around for a while now, and the sheer amount of things that have been announced is tremendous. There has been some delays in those projects starting. Some start and they slow down. I do believe, I know for a fact that we are a winning business in that space. And I think that's part of why the overall decline is less severe than it has historically been in the past, right? So it's, you know, it's kind of a cop-out to say things wouldn't be, you know, they're less bad than they would have been, but there really is some truth to that. On data centers specifically, the beautiful thing about our portfolio is we participate in all elements of that.
You know, when the facility is built, when it's specced, when the building's built, when the equipment is made to go into that facility, and then obviously the CapEx that happens afterwards as a maintenance is all fantastic for Parker-Hannifin. We have AI data centers is about, it's a pretty big market space. We did call that out for FY 2029, so we expect it to grow out through FY 2029. Today, it is a small percentage of our business, and to be honest with you, what we're doing is we're being selective on where we want to win there. Because we want to make sure that we're partnering with customers that value the quality, that value the technology, that need something that works no matter what. That's really where we win business. We don't like winning business on low cost.
We very rarely win business because we're the lowest provider of any of the services that we do. But where we win is when someone values the engineering expertise, they want global service, they love a quality product, and they know that the name Parker is going to bring quality to their applications. And that's really where we're focusing on. The growth in that business is tremendous. You know, probably the highest growth percentage end market that we have, but it's still small with the potential to be bigger.
So let me just follow up on that, Todd, just briefly. I think you estimated your investor day, you know, in the spring of 2024, $2 billion TAM for liquid cooling. And since then, you know, liquid cooling estimates as a percent of thermal have gone up, you know, pretty significantly. So is it possible that you're going to have a much bigger TAM to sort of play in than you thought?
I think that two number is the right number for us. And, you know, I just go back on the comment that there's a lot of activity going on there. There is a decision on capacity and investment. So I think we're going to be selective. And just like we do everything else, we're going to be selective and make sure that we win the right opportunities, not just a capacity play.
Helpful. So I want to ask you about your international markets and your distribution channel. And then I'll turn it over to the audience if they have any questions. But just on international, right? It seems like Asia has been gradual recovery. Europe has continued to be weak. Latin America is strong. So, you know, you step back, right? There's also geopolitical noise out there. You're worried about that maybe derailing the Asian recovery or things fine there? Like how do you assess the regions in the international market?
It's a great question. First, you know, I'll start with the smallest region, which is Latin America. That's a small region for us. But this is a great example of that team using those tools in our win strategy to rise above all the noise. They have unbelievable inflationary pressures, unbelievable currency challenges. And they have improved that business to be above company average growth and margins, which is fantastic. So I always like to give that team kudos because I've been so hard on them for so many years. Asia, which has historically been our highest growth region, you know, really had taken a step back really around COVID. And then the starts and stops and the fits and all that kind of stuff, the construction pause across Asia-Pac, specifically China, has really put a damper on growth.
What that team has been able to do is that team has been able to regroup, still continue to generate all-time record margins, and really focus on the markets that are meaningful from a growth standpoint. Semicon is a great example of those. We have started to see green shoots across all other end markets in Asia-Pac and really China for that matter. And that's been a part of what's helped the orders turn. And of course, you know, top line volumes. Europe still continues to be stagnant. And, you know, I don't think we're expecting that to turn anytime soon. So what we're doing there is the same thing we do everywhere else is control what we can control, manage the cost, make sure we're serving the customer. Where we've really done well in both Asia and Latin America has been shifting that mix from OEM to aftermarket.
Historically, if you followed us for a long time, we would have higher than 50/50 mix in North America, lower in Europe, and even lower in Asia. But, you know, years ago, I think it's now eight years, maybe nine years now that we've had a goal to improve that mix 100 basis points a year. And we've done that. Now you look at the industrial business, it's 50/50 equally in total. And there still is room to grow as we start to get those international bases higher. That's helped with the margin profile of that business. It's also helped with the cyclicality of that business because of the aftermarket exposure.
Todd, to your point, you can continue to add that 100 basis point a year thing.
Yeah. Yeah, we're still, you know, not to the North America percentages.
Got it. Any questions from the audience? I will continue. So let's talk Aero for a second. You know, obviously, you've done a very good performance there. But I, you know, when you go out and look at some of your competitors, it's been maybe a little tougher for a couple of them in terms of supply chain, headwinds, all that. So maybe talk about what Parker has been able to do to sort of avoid the noise, if you may.
You know, that's a great question. What I would say is that sometimes people say, "Hey, you have an aerospace business and you have an industrial business. Why do you have those businesses together?" The real answer is that those technologies are the same, right? It's the same filtration technologies. It's the same fluid conveyance technologies. It's the same hydraulics, pneumatics, electromechanical technologies across the company. And the channels are different. The long versus short versus mid-cycle nature of the business is different. What we love about the aerospace business is, you know, technology starts maybe in a space program, maybe in a defense program, goes into the commercial space, bleeds into the business jet space. And then, you know, that carries its way through the industrial side of the business.
Likewise, and this is really the answer to your question, the operational rigor and the agility that is required to be held in the industrial side of the business. We blend that into the aerospace side of the business, so again, I'm dating myself here, but, you know, years ago, if we would have an initiative across the company, the first thing our aerospace business would say is, "Oh, hey, we're different. You guys don't understand. You're industrial. We're aerospace. We can't do that." You know, that is no longer the case, and when we have an initiative like the Win Strategy, it is applicable to every one of our businesses, whether you're aerospace, in-plant industrial, off-road transportation, energy, semicon. We're agnostic to what your end markets is, and that really has driven performance. That has helped on the supply chain side of things.
That has helped on the pricing side of things. And it certainly has helped on the conversion side of things. So the way we manage inventory, the way we manage working capital, the way we manage the receivables and making sure we get paid for what we deliver, that agility and that need to be agile on the industrial side of the business, we do the same thing in our aerospace side of the businesses. And that's kind of what's helped. The aerospace supply chain is still not back to normal. But, you know, they've been dealing now with multiple years of double-digit organic growth. It's totally understandable. I think it's getting better than it has. I hear less and less noise about that. But it's still something that we're constantly watching and the team is working on.
I think that there are concerns about Aero for you guys. It's just, you know, low, large numbers, tough comps, and/or maybe diligent defense. Maybe, I mean, because I think you've been asked this before. It's like your growth, if I just look at Q4 2025, is slower. You know, so run rate going into 2026, like how would you address that?
You're talking aerospace?
Yeah, just aerospace.
You know, it's been double-digit for, I think, almost two years now. And, you know, it's hard to keep up a double-digit organic growth number. We do expect it to be high single digits for the foreseeable future. So like in this example, I'd tell you just to look at the dollars of the growth versus the year-over-year comparisons. You know, if you do a couple-year stack, it's pretty impressive. You know, our aerospace business is now over 30% of the company. And, you know, you look at that, you know, it's over a $6 billion piece of business. And it's been meaningful. And, you know, we expect it to grow for the foreseeable future, which is a great position to be in.
For sure. And then, you know, DOGE does the dog thing every day.
DOGE, this is funny how this theme has emerged this week. We're not concerned about a DOGE. We are not doing consulting work. We're not doing special projects. These are real products that go on real equipment. Aerospace is about 40% of the mix, or excuse me, defense is about 40% of the mix within the aerospace business. The margin profiles are not as wide as the commercial OEM versus aftermarket. It never gets really spiky. It never drops, you know, a high or low. So our teams are on it and they're managing it. And it's not really a concern for us.
Helpful. So with the last few minutes, I want to talk cash flow and balance sheet. So cash flow has been very good.
Thank you. Yes.
You know, free cash flow margin target is 17% by 2029.
Yep.
But you're already over 15%. So, you know, is there still low-hanging fruit to continue to go after, you know, to be high teens? Is high teens where Parker should be? Can you do better than that?
Yeah. Well, we've never been high teens. So that's how we set the target. You know, that was a bit of a stretch target. You got the numbers perfect. We're 15% so far this year. Our cash flow is usually 60% generated in the second half of the fiscal year versus 40% in the first half of the fiscal year. And I would tell you, again, what you're seeing is the average. So we have some businesses that are well above that. We have some businesses that are below that. And what we continue to do is we continue to work that all aspects of working capital. That is a weekly conversation that happens in every one of those 85 businesses. Every one of those businesses have targets.
One of the things we did a few years ago was change our variable compensation structure to be based, and this is the majority of our team members, 60,000+ team members globally, on this compensation program that is based on the performance of your unit, not the performance of the total company, but your unit, one of those 85 businesses, and it's based on sales growth, segment operating income dollar growth, and free cash flow performance, so I love that because it's the first time in the history of the company that we've had all 60,000 team members compensated on their cash flow performance, so that's why you've seen our percentages increase, and that's why I think you'll see us march towards that 17% target. You know, we're throwing off over $3 billion of free cash flow a year now.
That is a factor of two times what it used to be. And the other thing that's really kind of impressive, if you look at just the last three years, sometimes history becomes, you know, you don't want to go too far ancient history. But we've grown sales at a factor of 8% CAGR. But we've grown both earnings per share and free cash flow by a CAGR 13%. So that's something we're really proud of. And that's something that really drives the team.
Todd, in your last earnings call, you talked about how gross leverage is now back down under two times. Jenny sounded quite bullish regarding continuing acquisitions, including the potential for larger ones. So maybe just talk about the landscape out there. Are valuations conducive for M&A, you know, even on the larger side? Are there any white spaces in the Parker portfolio that you want to fill?
Yeah, you know, M&A has been an important part of Parker's story for decades. Over the last decade, last eight to 10 years, we have made a move to larger transactions. The reason we did that was we wanted to balance the portfolio more towards aerospace, more towards filtration, more towards material science. We call it engineered materials, and really the instrumentation side of our business, so we did big deals in aerospace, filtration, engineered materials. We didn't get any instrumentation deals done, not for lack of trying, just because of what was in the pipeline and what we got done, so we feel really good about that. That has been a meaningful change for the company. We never stop mining that pipeline. We never stop building relationships.
Even after we close one, you know, the very next day, it's, "Okay, who's next in the pipeline?" And what we are not going to do is we're not going to just do something big or small because the leverage is what the leverage is at. Jenny has been very clear, wants to be active on capital allocation. If that means acquisitions, we would love that to happen. But we're not going to be less disciplined than we've been in the past. You know, on those last four deals, two times, believe it or not, we were not the highest bidder for those properties. They felt that we were a better owner than others. And that's how we were successful with it. We're not naive to know that that's always going to be the case. And you've got to present value or you're not going to win that.
And what I would say for us is we certainly have the ability to generate synergies better than any PE firm. And when it comes to any strategic, I think our ability to integrate the transaction, we can do in a world-class manner. You saw that with Meggitt. Meggitt was great because it was of significant size. And, you know, the numbers were just falling out of the P&L. But both Lord, Exotic, and Clarcor were just as meaningful from a percentage of synergy standpoint. They were just smaller in size. Right? But what we've done is we've learned from each one of those. And I would tell you that we've always had a good pipeline building process. We've always had a very successful integration process.
But by doing these four deals, we've really honed the muscle on doing this in a way that is meaningful to the financial statements.
Last question, with the last minute, what are the top two or three innovations and structural changes affecting your company over the next five years? Are there any emerging industry trends that are perhaps being overlooked in the current discourse?
You know, you kind of touched on this earlier. Obviously, we expect Aerospace to be a positive trend for the foreseeable future. We called that out at really our last two investor days. That one is clearly playing out into the P&L. The other ones that we've called out, things like clean tech adoption, things like electrification, have been unbelievably active and positive. But those both have had, you know, fits and starts and kind of, you know, very publicized pauses and delays. But it really is meaningful, and what we're trying to do is we're trying to not push this, but we're trying to support our customers as they adopt those technologies. Our portfolio, we say this all the time, is already levered towards the adoption of those technologies.
It's really just applying our existing technologies in a different way, maybe adding some niche products on the side of that. And I think that's a plus. You mentioned the mega projects. The numbers are astonishing. And I do think from a longer-term perspective that that stuff is real. I understand the frustration on, hey, you know, everyone's talking about it. It's not materializing fully. But I think that we would be worse without it. And I think in the future, it's going to be a positive.
Todd, thank you very much for being here.
It was a pleasure.
Thank you.
Great seeing everybody again.