Good morning, and welcome to Parker-Hannifin Corporation's fiscal 2026 third quarter earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this period, you will need to press star one on your telephone keypad. If you want to remove yourself from the queue, please press star two. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you should need operator assistance, please press star zero. I would now like to turn the call over to Todd Leombruno, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Chloe. I'd like to welcome everyone to Parker's fiscal year 2026 third quarter earnings release webcast. As Chloe said, this is Todd Leombruno, Chief Financial Officer, speaking. With me today, as usual, is Jennifer Parmentier, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Thank you all for your time and your interest in Parker. We truly appreciate it. Let's begin the call on slide two and address our disclosures on forward-looking projections and non-GAAP financial measures. Items listed here could cause our actual results to vary from our forecast. Our press release, this presentation, and reconciliations for any and all non-GAAP measures were released this morning and are available under the Investor section on parker.com. Today's agenda has Jenny re-reviewing our record third quarter performance, then she will highlight two of our largest market verticals, that is aerospace and defense and transportation.
I'm gonna follow with some details on our third quarter financial results, and then Jenny and I will provide an update to our FY 2026 outlook, including an update to market verticals and financial performance. As usual, we will conclude with the Q&A session of the call, and we will try to address as many of the questions as we have as possible. With that, I now ask you to draw your attention to slide three. Jenny, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Todd, and thank you to everyone for attending the call today. Q3 was a quarter of record performance enabled by the strength of our portfolio. We achieved top quartile safety performance with a 12% reduction in our recordable incident rate. This was our safest quarter ever and puts us in line with our goal of being the safest industrial company in the world. I did want to acknowledge the severe weather events that occurred in Texas earlier this week, where Parker team members live and work, some of whom may be listening to the call right now. We have a facility in Mineral Wells, Texas, where we employ over 300 team members. Their safety remains our top priority, and thankfully, those on-site at the time of the severe weather are safe. However, there was damage to our facility, which we are still assessing.
We are thankful to all our team members, as well as the responders and service providers who are assisting at our site and in the broader community. With that, let's share results for the quarter. Our team delivered record Q3 sales of $5.5 billion, organic growth of 6.5% and 40 basis points of margin expansion, resulting in 26.7% adjusted segment operating margin. Adjusted earnings per share grew 18%, year-to-date cash flow from operations was $2.6 billion. Orders came in at 9% with a record backlog of $12.5 billion. We are continuing to make progress on the Filtration Group acquisition. Integration planning is underway using our proven playbook. Moving to slide four, please. Many of you on the call today have seen this slide before. Why We Win.
First, The Win Strategy is our business system. We have a decentralized operating structure, 85 divisions run by general managers with full P&L responsibility, acting like owners, close to their customers, and executing The Win Strategy every day. Next, we have innovative products that solve customer problems, 85% covered by intellectual property. Our application engineers provide the expertise that allows us to have a competitive advantage with our interconnected technologies that provide efficient solutions for our customers. Finally, our distribution network is the best in the world. It is truly an extension of our engineering teams, providing solutions to all those small to midsize OEMs that are participating in capital spending and investment. These partners are experts at applying our interconnected technologies. Moving to slide five.
We have the number one position in the $145 billion motion and control industry, a growing space where we continue to gain share. As a reminder, these six market verticals represent greater than 90% of the company's revenue. We have a focused portfolio creating distinct value for our customers. Our powerhouse of interconnected solutions cuts across these market verticals and gives us a clear competitive advantage. 2/3 of our revenue comes from customers who buy four or more technologies, and our growth is focused on faster-growing, longer-cycle markets and secular trends. As Todd mentioned, today I would like to talk about the aerospace and defense and transportation market verticals.
Now on slide six, I'd like to highlight how we utilize our focused portfolio of core technologies to solve problems and create value for customers in aerospace and defense, our largest market vertical, representing 35% of Parker sales. We have been a trusted partner since the inception of the aerospace industry and today have products and technologies on every major aircraft program globally. Our portfolio is well balanced with approximately 2/3 of our sales from commercial programs and 1/3 from defense programs. We have proprietary designs across commercial transport, defense fixed wing fighter, business jet, and helicopter platforms. With the Meggitt acquisition, we increased our global footprint and are now very well equipped to serve current and future demand from OEM and aftermarket customers in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia. Demand remains robust. Orders continue to outpace shipments, and we are on track to finish our fourth consecutive year of double-digit organic growth.
Parker is better equipped than ever before with complementary technologies to help shape the future of flight and deliver a compelling value proposition for our customers today and on next gen commercial and defense programs in the years ahead. Moving to slide 7, featuring our transportation market vertical, which represents 15% of Parker sales. Our suite of differentiated and interconnected components and systems create value for customers across internal combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles. We are truly energy agnostic and well-positioned to meet changing customer needs. Today, we win with a focused portfolio of innovative products and our application engineers who work closely with customers to specify Parker technologies that improve the safety, reliability, and fuel efficiency of their equipment. Parker Filtration provides protection to the engine and fluid power systems. Our power takeoffs provide reliable power to work functions.
Our valves, hose, and fittings control the flow of safety-critical systems, and our engineered materials provide critical sealing, shielding, and thermal management. In addition, our robust network of channel partners serve the aftermarket needs of end users around the world. Lastly, we are seeing an increase in OEM orders for heavy-duty truck, our largest platform within transportation, and as a result, are increasing fiscal year 2026 sales guidance for this market. I'll turn it back to Todd to review third quarter highlights.
Well, thank you, Jenny. We are on slide nine, and I'm going to start with just the summary financial results. As Jenny said, our team delivered another set of new records this quarter for sales, adjusted segment operating margin, EBITDA, net income, and adjusted EPS. Total sales were up nearly 11%. Organic growth was 6.5%. Currency was favorable at 2.5%, and acquisitions added 1.5% to the total. Adjusted segment operating margins were 26.7%. That is up 40 basis points from prior year, and adjusted EBITDA was up 20 basis points to reach 27.2%. We have achieved two new first-time ever milestones this quarter. Adjusted net income surpassed $1 billion for the first time ever, and that is a 19.1% return on sales.
In addition, the adjusted earnings per share of $8.17, that's the first time we've been above $8 for a single quarter ever. As Jenny said, that is a growth of 18% versus prior year. Our teams around the globe did an excellent job this quarter, resulting in another quarter of strong performance. That organic growth, those records across the board and that 18% EPS growth, we're really proud of everyone for their efforts. We're well positioned, and we remain confident in delivering another record year in 2026. If we can move to slide 10, we'll just display the walk. The $1.23 of additional EPS, that's that 18% increase. Main driver continues to be increased segment operating income dollars.
That added $0.96 or 14% of the growth versus prior year. If you go to the next bar, income tax was favorable, $0.18. There was a couple discrete items that occurred within the quarter that to drive the $0.18 favorable year-over-year comparison. Share count was also favorable. That drove 14% of improvement from prior year. That was really based on all the discretionary purchases that we've done over the last year or so. Interest was just $0.02 unfavorable, and that was driven by just a slightly higher average debt balance that was slightly offset by lower rates. Corporate G&A and other were a little bit higher, just $0.03 due to some favorable market-based benefits that really occurred in the prior year. So not a FY 2026 issue. That was FY 2025.
The result is a record $8.17. It's just really driven by strong growth and our team continuing to work The Win Strategy. I really appreciate the team's effort on safety. Jenny mentioned this was our safest quarter ever, really focusing on our customers, achieving that growth and just really strong operating results. Thank you to all. If we can go to slide 11, let's look at the segment performance. If you look at orders, we were nine in total, with positive order rates across all of our businesses. Backlog increased to a record level of $12.5 billion. We generated record segment operating margins. You know, that was 40 basis points of margin expansion. Overall, just a great Q3.
If we look at North America specifically, sales were $2.1 billion, with organic growth of nearly 3%. That was slightly better than our expectations. Strongest markets within North America were in-plant and industrial equipment, off-highway and, followed by energy. Adjusted operating margins were up 10 basis points, for a Q3 record of 25.3%, and orders remained robust at 7% compared to prior year. Looking at the international businesses, sales were a record $1.5 billion. That was up 13% versus prior year, with organic growth attributing for 3% of that. Asia Pac had another strong quarter of organic growth at +10%. EMEA was flat, and Latin America was down versus prior year. Moving to margins.
Margins were up 20 basis points on the international businesses, achieved a record of 25.3% for the quarter, and international orders continue to be +6% versus some really challenging comps of +11% in the prior year. Aerospace, same story here. Another fantastic quarter for the aerospace businesses. Sales of $1.8 billion, that's up 15.5% versus prior year. Organic growth was 14.2% in aerospace. That is really driven on continued commercial strength in both the OEM portions and also the aftermarket. Margins are up 80 basis points and reached 29.5% for the quarter.
We had double-digit OEM and aftermarket order growth that resulted in aerospace order rates of +14%, and backlog increased 15% in this segment and reached a record of $8.4 billion. We continue to see strength in the aerospace businesses. Each of our aerospace market segments delivered positive sales growth for the quarter. Just a great quarter for aerospace. If I could draw your attention to slide 12, you'll see our year-to-date cash flow performance. Year-to-date cash flow from operations was $2.6 billion or 16.7% to sales. That's up 14% versus prior year. Year-to-date free cash flow increased 17% and came in at $2.3 billion. That is almost 15% of sales, 14.9% of sales.
Both the CFOA and the free cash flow dollars are all-time records at this point in the year. We just have great confidence in our ability to generate cash, and we are committed to actively deploying that cash to create value. You saw last week our board approved an 11% increase to our quarterly dividend. That quarterly dividend is now $2 per share, that increase will extend our record of increasing annual dividends paid per share to an impressive 70 years. 70 years. In addition, in the quarter, we repurchased another $275 million of shares, which brings our year-to-date share repurchases to $825 million. That is a wrap on Q3 performance. I'll ask you to draw your attention to slide 14.
Jenny, I'll hand it back to you to talk about the market verticals.
Thank you, Todd. Slide 14 shows our updated fiscal year 2026 organic sales growth by a key market vertical. In aerospace, we are increasing our forecast from 11% to 12% organic growth as we continue to see, as Todd said, strength in commercial OEM and aftermarket. In-plant industrial remains the same at a positive low single-digit organic growth. Quoting activity remains strong. Customers are prioritizing spending on automation and productivity, and I would say distributor inventories are stable and continuing to order to demand. As I just mentioned in an earlier slide, we are raising our outlook on transportation from mid-single-digit organic decline to low single-digit organic decline. This is driven by stronger heavy truck orders while automotive demand challenges persist. Off-highway remains the same at positive low single-digit organic growth.
We see construction growth from capital and infrastructure investment while ag remains under pressure. We are maintaining energy at positive low single-digit growth with strong power gen activity. We do see growth in midstream oil and gas, but it is offset by upstream, which remains soft. We are maintaining HVAC and refrigeration at positive mid-single-digit growth. We see strength in commercial HVAC, refrigeration, filtration, and aftermarket. As a result of these changes, we are increasing our organic sales growth guidance from 5% to 5.5% at the midpoint. I'll give it back to Todd for some more guidance details.
Thank you, Jenny. I'm on slide 15. This is just some more details. You know, we have one quarter left here in our fiscal year, so I'm gonna give you some midpoints. Don't read anything into that other than the fact that there's one quarter left, and the ranges look a little silly when you're just talking one quarter. For reported sales growth, the forecast has been increased to 7%. Currency based on March 31st spot rates is expected to be favorable at 1.5%. Acquisitions are one, and divestitures are also 1one. For the full year, we're increasing organic growth to 5.5%. That's midpoint. Aerospace organic growth is increased to 12%, and industrial growth is now expected to be 2.5% for both North America and international.
Adjusted segment operating margins, we are expecting to be 27.2 for the year. That is a forecasted increase of 110 basis points versus prior year with margin expansion across all the businesses. The forecast for incrementals for the full year is 40%. Assumptions for corporate G&A, interest and tax are all detailed out in the appendix. Really no changes there. Full year adjusted EPS has been raised by $0.50- $31.20 at the midpoint. That would be an increase of 14.2% versus prior. In addition, we are also raising our forecast for full year free cash flow to $3.3 billion-$3.6 billion. That is $3.45 billion at the midpoint. That would be 16.2% of sales with conversion at approximately 100%.
In respect to Q4 specifically. Be nearly $5.5 billion. That is a 5.5% increase versus prior year. Organic growth will be approximately 4%. Adjusted segment operating margins will be 27.4%. The effective tax rate we are expecting is 22%. For the second time ever, adjusted EPS would be above $8 to be at $8.16. As usual, we've got some more details in the appendix. With that, I will turn it back to you, Jennifer Parmentier, and ask everyone to turn to slide 16.
On our final slide, a reminder of what drives Parker. Safety, engagement, and ownership are the foundation of our culture. It's our people and living up to our purpose that drives top quartile performance that allows us to be great generators and deployers of cash.
Okay, Chloe, we are ready to start the Q&A portion of the call.
Absolutely. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star two. Others can hear your questions clearly, we ask that you pick up your handset for best sound quality. We'll take our first question from Mig Dobre with Baird. Your line is open.
Thank you, good morning, and thanks for the question here. Maybe I'll start with kind of the topical items of late. You haven't really called out what's been going on in the Middle East in any way that was material. I'm curious, as you look at your business, has there been any disruption or anything that's different that we need to be aware of? Also, you know, there's an updated tariff framework. I'm curious if there's any impact to be done about as far as you're concerned.
Hi, Mig. First of all, I would say our first concern with the Middle East is the safety of our team members. We're very, very happy that they're all safe. Direct revenue in the Middle East is very small, and there's really no manufacturing. It's primarily a sales organization. Our teams are doing a fantastic job managing the supply chain, handling logistics, and doing everything they can to minimize the disruption to our customers. At this point, we're not seeing any material impact to demand. Talking about tariffs and what's going on there, it continues to be very dynamic.
As always, our teams are doing a great job managing them to make sure that there's no impact to earnings. As you know, price-cost management has been a core element of The Win Strategy for us. This is a strong muscle for us, for over 25 years, and we don't expect this to have any impact. When you're looking at, you know, changes in tariffs, again, I would say we're very close to it. We analyze it on a regular basis, and it's nothing that we're concerned about taking care of.
Hey, Mig, I would just add, this is Todd. Jenny mentioned it's a complex process. We're obviously doing everything we can there. We will not recognize any income on those tariffs until we receive them, so we're treating that as a contingency gain. You won't see us forecast or recognize any income until we actually receive any refunds.
Understood. My follow-up, just kind of sticking with your comments on price-cost, I guess optically, even though this was a very good quarter that you guys put up, optically the incrementals on the industrial side of the business were a little bit lower than what we have seen of late. I'm kind of curious if there is any lag whatsoever that you're experiencing in terms of either dealing with these tariff dynamics or any other inflationary aspects within your business, you know, any delay relative to where you're able to implement pricing to offset that. Thank you.
I'll take that, Mig. No. No delays, no concerns there with, you know, price-cost management whatsoever. You know, we were below what we had forecasted in North America and international. In North America, this was really driven by stronger OEM growth, and notably this came from off-highway and transportation. Distribution did hold steady, but no real acceleration there yet. While we aren't in the excuse-making business, as I tell the teams, the teams are always planning for various contingencies. This quarter, we had to recover from more weather-related disruptions than normal, and that was mainly in North America. We're very proud of the teams, as Todd mentioned, for responding and delivering to the customers.
We did have a Q3 record margin for North America and, you know, we're gonna finish the year strong.
Super. Thank you so much.
Thanks, Mig.
We'll move next to Jamie Cook with Truist Securities. Your line is open.
Good morning and congrats on a nice quarter. I guess two questions, just following Mig's question on the incremental margins. You know, for the full year, you're still expecting a 40% incremental margin, which is, you know, above a normalized range or what you laid out at the Analyst Day. I guess as, you know, Todd, while you don't wanna talk about 2027, as we think about the setup for next year over the longer term, is there any reason why we shouldn't believe incremental margins couldn't be in the 40% range, or does mix, you know, on like the mobile side or whatever impact that, or can incrementals be structurally, you know, better?
I guess, you know, Jenny, my question to you, just because there's a lot of concerns obviously with the Middle East and macro, your orders in industrial still were very strong, in particular on international. Like you said, with the tough comps. Anything notable on sort of the cadence of orders throughout the quarter or into April, or just confidence level, sort of like last quarter? Has it waned at all, you know, relative to last quarter when it felt like you've been pretty one of the first people to be more positive, I guess, on industrial short cycle? Thank you.
Jamie, thanks for the congrats. I'll start. You know, we've been trained here to finish strong, and we're focused on finishing FY 2026 strong, so our focus right now is on Q4. I tell you what, we like to set up for FY 2027. You're gonna see us continue to do everything that we do here. You've seen our orders, you've seen our margin expansion over time. We are very much focused on creating great incrementals. You know, we hold the team to a target of 30%-35%, and obviously, that varies on where your business is. Really, what we're focused on is growing those segment operating income dollars and compounding EPS, right? That's been very successful for us, and that is a factor of that.
I think if you do the math, you're gonna get incremental somewhere where you're thinking, but we'll talk to you more about that in a couple weeks.
For your second question, Jamie, you know, orders were strong throughout the quarter. You know, we saw, you know, I would say the industrial recovery continues. We saw more broad-based positivity on both short and long cycle than we did earlier this year. You know, we feel really good about the guidance. As always, you know, we stay close with the customers, so we, not only feel good about the guidance, but we're not seeing anything right now that concerns us.
Thank you. Congrats again.
Thanks, Jamie.
Thank you.
We'll take our next question from Jeffrey Sprague with Vertical Research. Your line is open.
Hey, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Jenny or Todd, could you just maybe spend a little more time on aero? You know, the organic growth in Q4, I guess, will be sort of the slowest of the year against the easiest comp of the year. Are you dialing in some, you know, aftermarket pressure or, you know, maybe kind of what's underneath that outlook in the fourth quarter?
I would say, Jeffrey Sprague, you know, the aerospace Q4 forecast is approximately 9%, and that was raised from our previous Q4 guidance of 7.5%. We're not baking in any slowdown here. You know, orders and backlogs continue to be very strong. Record backlog here in this long cycle business. Again, as I mentioned earlier, this is gonna be our fourth year in a row of double-digit organic growth for aerospace, but we're not building in any slowdown here.
There's no indication in orders or anything that there's a shift between OE or aftermarket?
Say that again. I'm sorry.
Yes, the complexion of OE versus aftermarket in aero. I wonder if you could give a little more color there?
Well, if you look at how we performed in Q3, commercial OEM was up 22%, and aftermarket was up 14%. Again, strong orders in both areas. You know, we feel real good about the mix and the forecast. We were at 51% OEM in Q3 and 49% aftermarket. The teams are doing a really great job with the higher OEM mix and still being able to expand margins.
Jeff, I would just add, aerospace specifically, the backlog increased 5% sequentially. $8.4 billion is the total backlog. That's all-time record.
Okay, great. Thank you. I'll leave it there.
Thanks, Jeff.
We'll move next to Chris Snyder with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Thank you. You know, I understand that as, you know, the industrial businesses turn to be more longer cycle exposure, that there's a lag between when, you know, the orders convert to revenue. If we see industrial orders sustained here in this mid-single digit, even maybe high single-digit range for several quarters in a row, is there any structural reason why sales will not ultimately, you know, get to that same level of growth? Thank you.
Thanks for the question, Chris. I wouldn't say that there's any structural reason. If you look at North America, orders have been, you know, +7% for the past two quarters. We noted in Q2 that these included long cycle multi-year defense orders. Again, in Q3, we saw orders that are due beyond this fiscal year, including defense, energy, and even construction orders scheduled into FY 2027, which is, you know, usually shorter cycle. You know, we're guiding 3% organic growth for Q4, which would be the best performance so far for this year. You know, as Todd mentioned earlier, you know, we like the way the setup's looking for fiscal year 2027.
Thank you. When you look across all of the various industrial end markets that the company serves, you know, are you seeing the improvement in sales and in orders driven by end demand going higher? Like, what's being put out into the channel is being consumed? Are there spots where you think distributors could be maybe building a little inventory in anticipation of a cycle? You know, maybe some concerns on supply chains or commodity inflation with the events in the Middle East. Yeah, just trying to see if there's any, like, end market differences on that. Thank you.
No, I wouldn't say we're seeing any of that yet. I think they're still ordering to demand, you know, for rather quick consumption. We're not, you know, seeing any real acceleration or any typical signs of restocking. Haven't heard of any supply chain fears, you know, within the channel around the industrial side of the business.
Thank you, Jenny.
You bet.
We'll move next to Amit Mehrotra with UBS. Your line is open.
Thanks, operator. Morning, everybody. I wanted to just follow up on that point around, I guess distributors versus OE mix. Jenny, I think you made a comment about, you know, stable distributor inventories ordering to demand, you know, strong quoting. I'm just trying to triangulate those items to understand sort of the psychology around inventory stocking and kind of a more structural question. Are the distributors maybe getting a little bit more sophisticated around inventory management? Maybe there's a mix more from growth towards OE, which has margin consequences. Maybe you could talk about that.
Yeah. What I would say is that, over the last several years, I think our distributors have become very sophisticated when it comes to inventory management. You know, even coming out of COVID, managing cash and, you know, really putting all of the processes in place to, you know, to order what they need and use it, and sell it for consumption. I think that is definitely something that has happened over the last several years. When we talk about, you know, ordering to demand, it's we're not seeing the increase that would, you know, tell us that there is a restocking going on. They've been telling us for quite some time that quoting activity is strong. Their, their sentiment has been positive for quite some time.
Again, they will tell us that their customers are being, you know, selective with capital investments and really focused on those that, you know, provide automation and productivity. We're not, you know, signaling anything, you know, changing. It's just not accelerating right now. We are seeing an increase in OEM. You know, with the raise to transportation outlook and, you know, off-highway with construction, we are seeing increased OE, which is, you know, classically 10 points-15 points below distribution.
Great. You also mentioned, you know, historically over the last few quarters, you talked about the order strength really being centered on longer cycles, specific verticals. I think you kind of broadened it out a little bit this quarter. Maybe just talk a little bit more about that true short cycle piece and what your observations have been over the last few months.
Yeah. You know, when you look at long cycle, it continues to pull strong. We've been talking about that. You know, that's why we raised our aerospace and defense guidance. Power gen, long cycle business, it's robust. You know, lots of activity in midstream oil and gas, and electronics is also growing nicely. On the short side, as I mentioned before, you know, the industrial recovery continues. We've been talking about a slow gradual industrial recovery for some time now, and that's what we're seeing. The orders that we saw were more broad-based and positive on both short and long cycle, on the industrial side of business than we've seen, you know, really all of this fiscal year. Construction continues to improve. Heavy-duty truck improvements. In-plant and distribution, which we just talked about.
We're continuing to see this positive low single-digit growth. Again, you know, we'll say we're set up for a good fiscal year 2027.
Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
We'll take our next question from Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup. Your line is open.
Good morning, everyone.
Morning.
Morning.
Jenny, could you talk about what you're seeing in the aerospace supply chain? As you know, one of your peers continues to have some issues there, but you've continued to execute well. Seem to be absorbing, like, a little bit more difficult margin mix while still growing. As we start to transition to FY 2027, is there any reason why you couldn't continue to grow margin even if mix is running a bit more against you?
Well, I, you know, I remained confident in our ability to expand margins and committed to that as well. I don't have any change there. You know, the aerospace supply chain, I would say, you know, it's obviously in much better shape than it has been. We've seen, you know, the big airframers be able to increase their rates, which we're obviously participating in. I would tell you that, you know, we have over the last several years invested quite a bit in our supply chain. That has, you know, proved to be very beneficial for us. I don't really have any concerns here.
Jenny, continued strong performance in Asia Pac, that +10% is impressive. Maybe talk about the durability of that growth. EMEA flat, you know, it's kinda bouncing along there at kind of those rates. You know, I think last quarter was up a little bit. Do you see sort of improvement there, or is it just kind of bouncing along at flat in that region?
Well, you know, this is, you know, primarily, as we said earlier, you know, it's the growth is coming from Asia Pacific. You know, the total backlog coverage in industrial did increase to the high 20s, and international orders were +6% for the third quarter in a row. Again, driven by electronics and some defense bookings. You know, EMEA slightly negative on a tough comp when it comes to orders, but strength in aerospace and defense, some mining, some in-plant and industrial. Asia orders are strong, coming from electronics, data center in there and in-plant and energy.
Appreciate the color.
Thanks, Andy.
We'll take our next question from Julian Mitchell with Barclays. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning. Maybe, Jenny, just wondered if you could flesh out the sub-segment sort of assumptions on aerospace. Just kind of what you're expecting in the fourth quarter for the major pieces kind of year-on-year, and how they did in Q3. I think you have the commercial bits for Q3, but not military.
Yeah, let me give you a Q3 rundown, and then I'll go to what we have for our Q4 guidance. As Todd mentioned, aerospace organic growth was 14.2%. Commercial OEM was 22%, and obviously this is really driven by production rate increases in both narrow and wide body. Commercial aftermarket was 14%. You know, and even though we were, you know, starting to see global air traffic growth begin to normalize, we still saw some nice growth in Q3, and strong spares and repair shipments. Defense OEM is a positive 13%. We see demand for the legacy programs continuing. Defense aftermarket was positive 8%. Fleet upgrades and service extensions are contributing to that.
I mentioned earlier, you know, aftermarket mix at 49% and OE at 51. When we look at Q4 guidance, again, we're increasing full year to 12%, and we're raising commercial OEM to be the low-20s growth. We previously had that at 20%, approximately 20%. We are raising commercial MRO of low-teens growth, that was previously low-double-digit. We expect defense OEM to be mid-single-digit growth. That's the same as before. Defense MRO, low-single-digit growth, also the same as our last guidance.
That's very helpful. Thank you. Just to try and circle back again to that point on industrial kind of orders and sales and the fact you've had several quarters of orders in both industrial segments outstripping the revenue growth pace. Maybe just another way to look at it. I wanted to confirm that industrial, the diversified industrial overall backlog, looks like was at just over $4 billion at the end of March, so you had a decent sort of year-over-year and sequential increase. I guess I'm just trying to say it looks as if that orders outpacing of sales isn't just a sort of comp phenomenon or something.
Like you, there should be some recoupling of the sales to those orders, even though from the outside we can't see the kind of dollars of orders you've been booking.
Yeah, Julian, you're absolutely right. The both the industrial and the aerospace backlogs improved, and we obviously see that as a good sign.
Got it. Thank you.
Thanks, Julian.
We'll move next to Andrew Obin with Bank of America. Your line is open.
Hi, guys. Good morning.
Morning, Andrew.
Just to check my math on Industrials, I guess organically it does imply that Q4 will be at the midpoint, will be a tad slower than Q3 Industrials Americas. Is that okay? Is that correct?
No, we've got it, you know, pretty much the same.
Okay, fine. Maybe a question on pricing in the quarter. You know, we've been hearing about sort of industry talking about rebates, pushback. Now all of this has been before S 232, and I know maybe not a, you know, direct impact for you guys. Has conversation on pricing changed given that the industry now does have to deal with S 232? Can you just talk about pricing trends in Q1 and what pricing looks for the remainder, well, I guess it'll be a fiscal year. Any comment around pricing would be great.
I would say that conversations haven't changed. Obviously, you know, when it comes to, you know, the tariffs, as I mentioned earlier, it's dynamic and it requires a lot of analysis and coordination, and the teams are doing a great job of that. You know, on the industrial side of the business, as we've mentioned in the past, you know, we're back to, especially with distribution, we're back to a normal pricing environment. We'll do that as we, as we have in the past. You know, with aerospace, there's still some opportunity for pricing, and the, and the teams are executing on that.
You know, we've been doing this for a long time, and, you know, I think we've done a great job of covering inflation and making sure that the tariffs haven't impacted our earnings, and we'll continue to do that.
Maybe just sneak one in on defense aftermarket. Why not raise the guide given what's happening in the Middle East? I would imagine a lot of wear and tear on key platforms that you're on. Sorry.
Yeah, you know, this is long lead time product, right? Even in defense. You know, you're looking anywhere from, you know, nine to 15 months. We have the guide out there based on, you know, the deliveries that our customers want, and that's what's really driving that number.
Terrific. Thank you.
Thanks, Andrew.
We'll move next to Tim Thein with Raymond James. Your line is open.
Great. Thank you. Good morning. First question is just on the mix dynamics within the industrial businesses in 2026. You can see if you can help kind of summarize in terms of with distributions growth and what you're expecting next year relative to the total. I, you know, more forward-thinking, I'm just trying to think if that business begins presumably to pick up, does that potentially portend a mix tailwind in 2027? Any help on that?
Yeah, Tim, this is, this is Todd. You know, you look at our industrial business, it is exactly 50% OEM, 50% aftermarket. As these things rise and fall, depending on what market they're in, there really is a nice diversified balance across there. You know, when we see something pop, like last quarter, I think we mentioned slightly there was a little bit of a mix issue. You know, these things are small in comparison to the, to the total. What we look at is positive. We're looking at those orders. We've had positive orders in the industrial business now for six quarters in a row. Again, what that does is that helps us compound dollars, and that leads to EPS growth.
Yeah. You know, distribution, you know, sits in our primarily sits in our in-plant and industrial market vertical. You know, our forecast remains the same for that for the rest of the fiscal year. It's positive low single-digit growth.
Okay. All right. Understood. Then, again, this is a little bit out of, out of left field, but there was one of your big European based competitors, they recently flagged some had seen more competition from some of the competitors in Asia starting to make some more inroads into their markets. I'm just curious, maybe some broader question just in terms of the, you know, competitive dynamics as you think about that globally. I mean, your results wouldn't suggest it, but I'm just curious what you would say to that in terms of any changes that you've seen globally on the, you know, competitive front.
I wouldn't say that I've seen any changes, but I would say that, you know, our teams are very focused on, you know, taking any and all competition very seriously. You know, we have a lot of pride in the products that we have, and, you know, the value that they bring to the customers, the quality. You know, we manufacture in, you know, many regions of the world that allows us to be very competitive locally. While competition is always something that, something we have to keep an eye on, our performance is what, you know, ensures that not only that we keep what we have, but that we gain share.
All righty. Thank you.
We'll take our next question from Joe O'Dea with Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Can you give a little bit more color on what you're seeing in Industrial International? We've seen, you know, very steady mid-single-digit order growth. You touched on the tough comp in Q3, so I think kind of pick any stack period you want. Looked pretty good in the third quarter. You know, Europe, Asia, kind of what you're seeing, any verticals you would call out there?
Sure. We are increasing full year organic growth to 2.5% for international versus our prior guide of approximately 2%. In EMEA, we're maintaining a slightly positive low single-digit. You know, we're seeing a gradual improvement in in-plant and in transportation, primarily heavy duty truck. We have seen continued strength in mining and energy, both oil and gas and power gen. In Asia Pacific, increasing full year to positive high single-digit versus positive mid-single-digit we had in our prior guide. This is continued strength in electronics and semicon demand. In-plant orders and shipments progress, but remain a little bit mixed. Mining is strong, and there have been improvements in energy.
It's really, kind of a mix between EMEA and Asia Pacific, but, we're gonna end this year at 2.5%.
Okay. That's helpful. Just on Filtration Group, I think, you know, initially talking about a six to 12-month window, I think it seems like some deals have taken a little bit longer to work through regulatory processes. I'm not sure if, you know, the way you're thinking about it maybe favors the 12-month side of that versus six. Just any color, you know, recognizing, you know, really good margin business, what you're working on, you know, in preparation for that as the highest priorities post-close.
Sure. You know, we still anticipate that we're going to close within the 12 months of announcement date. Just as you said, you know, the closing remains subject to the customary closing conditions, receipt of our pending regulatory clearances. That progress is, you know, progress is happening there. It's ongoing. I would tell you that the integration planning is underway. Teams on both sides have been formed, those teams are working together. We'll put our integration playbook into place as soon as we do close and get The Win Strategy into the organization as soon as possible. You know, we did announce $220 million in synergies by the end of year three. That is 11%.
The majority of those synergies are going to come from the tools and the Win Strategy that you hear us talk about, lean supply chain and simplification. We're not providing, at this time, any information on the phasing of those synergies, but we're very, very confident in our ability to achieve those. You know, announcement was last November, and we still anticipate that it'll be within the 12 months.
Charlie, I would just add on the funding side of it, we have our funding plan in place. There is no pre-funding that's required for this transaction, so you won't see any interest before we close the transaction. You're gonna see us do exactly what we've done on the past transaction. A little over half of this will be serviceable debt. The rest will be short to medium term notes. We do not expect leverage to surpass three when we close. Our de-levering plan will be in place that we get back to around two faster than we ever have before.
That's great. Thank you.
Thanks.
We'll move next to Andrew Buscaglia with BNP Paribas. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, everyone.
Morning.
Just looking across, you know, broader coverage group and broader industrials, looking at what life is like if energy prices persist above $100 going forward. I would think Parker would stand to benefit. I'm wondering, and you haven't probably gotten this question in a while, but where do you, obviously you have that direct energy exposure or maybe there's a nice benefit, but I would think there'd be a ripple effect, some animal spirits brewing in some other areas, maybe off-highway and plant. What is the net impact for you guys if we still see energy prices sitting here around six months from now?
Well, I think it's probably too hard to, you know, to forecast right now. We, you know, with where we're at today and what we have in our guide, I think that's representative of the impact today and how it impacts overall Parker-Hannifin. You know, we'll have to see how this plays out. You know, I don't have any forecast to share with you today.
Yeah, Andrew, I would just add, you know, the diversification of the portfolio is really one of the strengths of the company. We often say we're agnostic when it comes to the power source. When you look at the market verticals that we call out, there'll be some pluses and some minuses across those, but I think overall the company will be able to capitalize on any opportunities that come from changes in energy prices.
Okay. Fair enough. Yeah, and then, you know, your free cash flow, you know, nudge that up a little bit. I'm just wondering, in light of the Filtration Group deal closing, are you still evaluating M&A into year-end? Would you rather preserve some capital, you know, just to get through the deal and then see where you're at?
You know, we've been very active. We've been very direct with our commitment to do that. You saw us increase the dividend. You saw us do $825 million of share repurchases. You look at our leverage, it's very manageable where it sits today. I just mentioned even at full funding of the Filtration Group, we will not, we might get near three, but we're not gonna cross three. That pipeline is always active. It's always being worked on. It's always being measured. I would tell you the capacity that the company has, you mentioned it, we're raising our free cash flow. If you look at CFOA, we're gonna be close to $4 billion in cash generation this fiscal year.
It gives us a lot of options, and we're gonna be very diligent when it comes to deploying those that optionality.
Yeah. I don't think I could have said it.
Thanks, Todd.
Thanks. Thanks, Buscaglia.
We'll move next to Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Thanks. Good morning, guys.
Morning.
Morning, Joe.
Todd, maybe a longer-term question on margins within the industrial business. Absent volumes, obviously you guys have done a great job expanding margins in both of those businesses. As you kinda think about the opportunity from here, where do you see as like the biggest levers, you know, absent volumes to continue to expand margins in the industrial segments?
Really, it's, it is our commitment to lean and continuous improvement, Kaizen across the organization. You know, we were just at some of our aerospace facilities, and you look at the margins that those aerospace businesses are putting up. You listen to our team members and you walk the shop floor and you see the Kaizen activity that's happening and the efficiency that it's driving, it is so energizing to see that. You know, we've said this before, we are very confident. Jenny said it multiple times today, that we're very confident in our ability to continue to expand margins. That's what you're gonna see Parker Hannifin do over the long term.
Yeah, you know, our team members have, you know, a mindset of we're never done. You know, in some of those visits that Todd was just talking about, you know, you're seeing, you know, fantastic improvements that they've made, and the next breath they're telling you what comes next. You know, again, just to reiterate our confidence in the teams, our confidence in our tools and The Win Strategy and, you know, our ability to really create shareholder value there.
That's, that's good to hear. Look, I know we'll get a guide in early August when you report. I guess as you kind of see your end markets right now, Jenny, you sound pretty sanguine on what's happening in the industrial end markets. I mean, is it fair to say, just given where we sit today, that the expectation for next year would be a t least a couple points better than what you're seeing in 2026?
That's a question to try and get a guide, I think. Listen, it's a fair question. You know, we've purposely transformed Parker into a less cyclical, faster-growing and more resilient company. Many of our industrial markets turned positive during this fiscal year, and orders are strong. As you were just talking about, The Win Strategy is clearly working. It's gonna continue to drive growth margins and earnings even higher. You know, we're gonna welcome the Filtration Group into this fiscal year, so I'm confident that we're gonna be able to guide fiscal year 2027 to another record year.
Great question.
Had to try, Jenny. Thank you.
Yeah.
It's okay. It's okay.
Chloe, this is Todd. I think we have time for one more question before we hit the top of the hour.
Absolutely. We'll take our last question from Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.
Great. Thanks. Thanks for letting me in here. The pressure of the last question.
Yeah.
Lots of questions on orders. Todd, maybe just, what was the industrial backlog? I'm getting $4.1 billion. Is that the right number?
Yeah. Your math is correct.
Your math is good. That's right.
Your math is correct.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. That, that's why I get paid the big bucks, I guess.
That's right. That's right.
Just a quick one on the Texas facility. Obviously, you know, really bad news, but just wondering the scale of that facility and any disruption you're factoring in for Q4.
You know, listen, we're still assessing, you know, what the impact is, but we don't expect this to have any material impact to overall Parker.
Oh, that's great news. Just one quick one. The D.C. business, data center business, I know it's small, but it's growing, you know, like a weed, so I'm assuming it's moving the needle on growth rates. Just any updates on the size and growth profile of data center?
Yeah, it's still approximately 1% of our sales. You know, we have great exposure here. It's growing nicely. It's just not, you know, large enough to have its own vertical right now. This is just a great example of how all of our technologies, our interconnected technologies come together to really provide great value to the customers. Listen, we're working with all the industry leaders. You're right, very fast-growing. We can provide liquid cooling systems, subsystem components. You know, with the increase in data centers, there's, you know, a secondary benefit there around power gen and automation and construction. This is a great overall impact for Parker.
Yep. Great. Thanks, Jenny. Cheers. Bye.
Thanks, Nigel. Okay. This concludes our FY 2026 Q3 earnings release webcast. We appreciate your time and attention, thank everyone for joining us today. As usual, our investor relations team of Jeff Miller and Jenna Stucky will be available for any follow-ups or clarifications that anyone may have. Thank you all, have a wonderful day.
Thank you. This concludes today's call. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.