AMETEK posted record third-quarter results, with sales up 11% to $1.89 billion (4% organic, 6 points from acquisitions), record orders and backlog, and diluted EPS up 14%, driven by broad EMG strength as medical destocking ended and Paragon Medical led growth. Margins expanded to record levels and the company raised full-year earnings guidance while deploying about $920 million on the FARO acquisition. The main soft spots were a mid-single-digit decline in China tied to tariff repricing delays and a slightly down Process segment amid trade-driven decision delays.

What went well
  • AMETEK delivered record third-quarter sales of $1.89 billion, up 11% from the prior year, with organic sales up 4%, acquisitions adding 6 points, and foreign currency a 1-point benefit.
  • Orders rose 13% to a record $1.97 billion with organic orders up 7%, producing a record backlog of $3.54 billion.
  • Operating income reached a record $496 million, up 11%, with margins excluding recent acquisitions of 27%, up 90 basis points, and record EBITDA of $592 million at a 31.3% margin.
  • The Electromechanical Group delivered record sales of $646 million (up 13%, organic up 12%) and record operating income of $164 million (up 25%), with operating margins up 250 basis points to 25.4%, led by Paragon Medical.
  • Aerospace and Defense grew organic sales low double digits with balanced strength across commercial OEM, aftermarket, and defense, while the company raised full-year earnings guidance.
  • Free cash flow was $420 million with a strong 113% conversion, and the company deployed about $920 million on the FARO acquisition, $150 million on buybacks, and $71 million on dividends while keeping net leverage at 0.9 times.
What went wrong
  • China demand was down mid single digits due to tariff repricing negotiations and export issues, with customers delaying orders to time lower tariffs.
  • Process segment organic sales were down slightly, with trade uncertainty leading to slower decision making and delays; full-year process organic sales are still expected flat to down low single digits.
  • EIG organic sales were flat in the quarter.

Management Commentary

Read the Q3 2025 summary ↗
Kevin Coleman
VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer, AMETEK

Thank you, Andrew. Good morning and welcome to AMETEK's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. With 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 costs.

David Zapico
Chairman and CEO, AMETEK

Reconciliations between GAAP and adjusted measures can be found in our press release and on the Investors section of our website. We'll begin today's call with prepared remarks and then we'll open it up for questions. I'll now turn the meeting over to David.

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning everyone. AMETEK delivered outstanding results in the third quarter with double-digit growth in sales, orders, operating profit, and diluted earnings per share. Organic sales growth was strong in the quarter, leading to outstanding margin expansion and earnings well ahead of our expectations. Given these excellent results and our outlook for the remainder of the year, we are increasing our full-year earnings guidance. Now let me turn to our third quarter financial results. Sales were a record $1.89 billion, an increase of 11% from the third quarter of 2024.

Organic sales were up 4%, acquisitions added 6 points, and foreign currency translation was a 1 point benefit. Orders were also very strong in the quarter, with overall orders up 13% to a record $1.97 billion and organic orders up 7%, leading to a record backlog of $3.54 billion. Our operational performance in the quarter was excellent, with strong margin expansion, double-digit earnings growth, and operating income in the quarter was a record $496 million, an 11% increase over the third quarter of 2024. Excluding the impact of recent acquisitions, margins were 27%, up 90 basis points versus the prior year. EBITDA in the quarter was a record $592 million, up 11% versus the prior year, with EBITDA margins an outstanding 31.3%. This operating performance led to record earnings of $1.89 per diluted share, up 14% versus the third quarter of 2024.

Now let me provide some additional details at the group level. First, the Electronic Instruments Group (EIG) delivered outstanding operating performance in the third quarter with strong margin expansion and operating margin levels that reflect the differentiated nature of our products and solutions. EIG sales were a record $1.25 billion, up 10% from last year's third quarter. Organic sales were flat, acquisitions added 9 points, and foreign currency was a 1 point tailwind. EIG operating income was $360 million, up 6% versus the prior year. Operating margins excluding the impact of recent acquisitions were 30.4%, up 50 basis points versus the prior year. The Electromechanical Group had an excellent quarter delivering outstanding sales growth, record operating income, and sizable margin expansion. EMG's third quarter sales were a record $646 million, up 13% versus the prior year. Organic sales were up 12%, and foreign currency was a 1 point tailwind.

Growth was broad based across all EMG businesses in the quarter. EMG's operating income in the third quarter was a record $164 million, up 25% compared to the prior year. EMG's operating margins were up sharply to 25.4%, a 250 basis point increase from the third quarter of 2024. Our results in the third quarter and thus far this year are a powerful demonstration of the AMETEK growth model in action. Our distributed operating structure and embedded operational excellence culture has allowed our businesses to quickly react to changing market dynamics and deliver excellent results. While there is still macroeconomic uncertainty given the ongoing trade conflicts, AMETEK is well positioned. We are seeing positive inflection in our automation and engineered solutions markets along with continued strength across our Aerospace and Defense businesses.

Additionally, we are managing a growing pipeline of opportunities within our power businesses and are benefiting from the strong secular trends driving that market. We are also seeing some improved visibility across our process markets, although as noted we are closely monitoring the trade dynamics and impact on demand timing. Our recent acquisitions FARO, Virtek, Kern, and Paragon are integrating very well into AMETEK and delivering strong results as Dalip will cover. We have significant balance sheet flexibility, providing us with ample firepower to deploy on strategic acquisitions. Lastly, our operating model continues to shine, with our colleagues doing an outstanding job leveraging our global infrastructure and operating systems to drive outstanding performance. Thank you to all colleagues for your tremendous efforts. Now switching to capital deployment. As noted, our integration efforts with recent acquisitions are progressing very well.

Strategic acquisitions continue to be a core element of our growth strategy and the primary focus for our capital deployment. We are managing a strong pipeline of attractive acquisition candidates and expect to be active in pursuing strategic opportunities going forward. Complementing our proven acquisition strategy is a consistent commitment to investing in our businesses to best position them for long-term success. For 2025, we now expect to deploy an incremental $90 million toward organic growth initiatives, with this investment focused primarily on research and development, sales, and digital marketing initiatives. The tangible results of this focus are clear, with our third quarter vitality index a strong 26%. The benefits of these investments coming to fruition can be seen in the many new product innovations across the company. I wanted to highlight a few of these new product innovations. The first one from our Virtek Vision business.

Virtek Vision is a leading provider of 3D laser projection and quality control inspection systems for critical aerospace and industrial applications. Virtek recently introduced a new AI-powered camera and software monitoring system that complements its advanced 3D laser projection system, further advancing the intelligent real-time inspection capabilities. The IRIS AI Inspection Camera addresses customers' critical need for improved quality control and real-time documentation in complex manufacturing workflows. The AI-powered camera captures and documents every step of the build process, creating a complete digital record for each part. A notable feature of this new solution is the ability for users to create custom AI inspection models that can automatically detect anomalies, allowing for real-time process corrections. With this new product launch, Virtek makes powerful digital manufacturing tools intuitive and operator-friendly, helping customers improve quality and productivity.

Our NSI-MI Technologies business, the global defense tech leader in advanced RF and microwave test and measurement solutions, is also doing an outstanding job developing highly differentiated custom solutions for their customers. Critical applications, NSI is aligned with strong secular growth themes tied to advancements in satellite systems, autonomous vehicles, and defense systems, and as a result, are seeing excellent demand for their advanced measurement solutions. NSI's recently introduced new product, the Vector Digital Receiver, advances their Antenna, Radome, and Electromagnetic Field Measurement capabilities, directly supporting the development of next generation communication systems and advanced sensors for air, land, space, and sea applications. I also wanted to congratulate our Rauland business on an impressive recent industry recognition. Rauland is a global leader in advanced clinical communications and workflow solutions for hospitals and healthcare systems worldwide.

For the second consecutive year, Rauland has won the prestigious MedTech Breakthrough Award for Best Clinical Administration Hardware Device. This award recognizes Rauland's Responder Platform for its critical role in addressing key challenges in modern healthcare such as nursing shortages and clinician workload stress. The new Responder Enterprise Converge simplifies and coordinates care by improving direct staff-to-staff and patient-to-staff communication, which leads to faster response times, enhanced patient safety, and better staff efficiency. This recognition underscores Rauland's technology leadership and its commitment to developing solutions that empower healthcare professionals and improve patient outcomes. This is a fantastic example of how our businesses are translating their technological innovation efforts into market-leading, award-winning solutions for our customers. Finally, an update on the global trade environment. The situation continues to be very fluid and ever-changing. We remain vigilant in monitoring developments and proactively managing potential impacts.

As we have discussed, our businesses continue to execute their well-defined mitigation plans, which include targeted pricing, strategic supply chain modifications, and utilizing our global manufacturing footprint to adapt to changing demand patterns. Our teams also continue to leverage our U.S. manufacturing presence to support global customers adapting their own supply chains. AMETEK's culture and decentralized operating structure remain key advantages, providing flexibility to implement these actions quickly and effectively. Our proven playbook for navigating these uncertain environments continues to serve us well, and our teams are executing effectively now. Turning to our outlook for the remainder of the year, we continue to expect full year sales to be up mid single digits on a percentage basis compared to 2024. Given our strong third quarter performance and outlook for the fourth quarter, we are increasing our earnings guidance for the year.

Diluted earnings per share for the year are now expected to be in the range of $7.32-$7.37, up 7%-8% versus the prior year. This is an increase from our previous guidance range of $7.06-$7.20 per diluted share. For the fourth quarter, we anticipate overall sales to be up approximately 10% with earnings in the range of $1.90-$1.95 per share, up 2%-4% versus the prior year. Fourth quarter earnings growth would be 6%-9% adjusting for last year's lower than normal tax rate. To summarize, AMETEK delivered an excellent third quarter with strong sales and orders growth, robust margin expansion, and earnings well ahead of our expectations. Our businesses continue to execute exceptionally well, delivering our differentiated technology solutions across a diverse set of niche markets.

Dalip Puri
EVP and CFO, AMETEK

Thank you Dave, and good morning everyone. As Dave noted, AMETEK had an excellent third quarter with strong growth and outstanding operating performance. This allowed us to deliver several financial records as well as double-digit growth in orders, sales, operating income, and earnings per share in the quarter.

Now let me provide some additional financial highlights for the third quarter. Third quarter general and administrative expenses were $28 million or 1.5% of sales, essentially in line with last year's third quarter. Third quarter interest expense was $23 million. Third quarter other expense was $17.9 million, with the increase versus last year's third quarter primarily due to One-Time Acquisition related costs for FARO Technologies. As I noted during our previous earnings conference call, we are excluding onetime acquisition related costs from adjusted earnings. This approach will be consistently applied to future acquisitions, ensuring comparability and clarity in our non-GAAP financial reporting. The effective tax rate in the quarter was 17.2%, down from 18.8% in the third quarter of 2024. The reduction was driven by a lower effective international tax rate for 2025. We now anticipate our effective tax rate to be between 18% and 18.5%.

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 third quarter were $21 million. We expect Capital Expenditures to be approximately $150 million for the full year, or about 2% of sales. Depreciation and amortization expense in the quarter was $103 million. For the full year, we expect depreciation and amortization to be approximately $425 million, including after-tax acquisition related intangible amortization of approximately $210 million or $0.91 per diluted share. Operating working capital in the third quarter was 18.9% of sales, a slight improvement from the third quarter of 2024. Operating cash flow was $441 million in the quarter and free cash flow was $420 million. Free cash flow conversion was a strong 113% in the quarter.

For 2025, we expect free cash flow conversion of approximately 110% to 115% of net income. Total debt at September 30th was $2.5 billion, up from $2.1 billion at the end of 2024 due to the acquisition of FARO Technologies. Offsetting this debt was cash and cash equivalents of $439 million. At the end of the third quarter, our gross debt to EBITDA ratio was 1 times and our net debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.9 times. We continue to have significant financial capacity and flexibility with over $2 billion in cash and available credit to support our growth initiatives and our capital deployment strategies. In the third quarter, we demonstrated this financial flexibility by deploying approximately $920 million on the acquisition of FARO, $150 million on share repurchases, and $71 million in dividends, all while maintaining our financial capacity and a conservative balance sheet.

With gross leverage around one times, the share repurchases in the quarter resulted in approximately 800,000 shares of our common stock being repurchased in the open market. In summary, AMETEK delivered an excellent third quarter with strong top line growth, robust margin expansion, outstanding earnings growth, and a meaningful increase to full year earnings guidance. Our differentiated technology portfolio, our global manufacturing capabilities, along with our strong cash flow and balance sheet, provides us with the foundation to successfully execute our growth strategy and to continue delivering exceptional results.

Kevin?

Kevin Coleman
VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer, AMETEK

Thank you, Dalip. Andrew, could we please open the lines for questions?

Analyst Q&A

Deane Dray — Managing Director of Equity Research, RBC Capital Markets
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good morning, Deane.
Deane Dray — Managing Director of Equity Research, RBC Capital Markets
Hey, that was really good. Earnings quality, cash flow, and margin. Congrats to the team.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you.
Deane Dray — Managing Director of Equity Research, RBC Capital Markets
Maybe we can start with the tour of your key platforms and regions and what stands out in particular. Looks like Paragon really had a strong quarter as well. Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Paragon did have another strong quarter, but I'll take us the whole way around the horn. I'll start with our process market segment. Overall sales were up low teens in process, driven by contributions from recent acquisitions. With organic sales down just slightly in the quarter, we remain encouraged by the strong pipeline of activity across our process end markets. Although trade uncertainty continues to lead to slower decision making and delays.
As I talked about in my prepared remarks, there's very strong project activity and visibility is improving across some of our key markets for the full year. We expect overall sales for our process segment to be up mid to high single digits and continue to expect organic sales to be flat to down low single. Go to A&D now. Aerospace and Defense businesses just delivered another excellent quarter with overall organic sales increasing low double digits on a percentage basis. Growth remains strong and balanced across commercial OEM, aftermarket, and defense markets, and our businesses continue to win content on new programs and expand content on a wide range of platforms. We continue to expect sales for our A&D businesses to be up high single digits for the year.
Power and industrial businesses delivered strong results in the third quarter with both overall and organic sales up mid single digits. We have increased our outlook now and expect full year organic sales to be up low to mid single digits for our power and industrial businesses. We increased it a click to low to mid single digits for power. We're benefiting from demand across our grid modernization and electrification applications, including in support of the power build out needed for AI data centers. I'll talk about one product there. Our IntelliPower business is a business that provides uninterruptible power systems for data center microgrids, and the rugged UPS systems, which are proven in defense and other mission critical applications, are perfectly suited for the harsh conditions and high reliability requirements of data center microgrids.
Similar to other AMETEK businesses, we are identifying attractive opportunities to expand our current technologies into this market, and we had some initial successes with both the Intellipower and, as we talked about last time, the RTDS simulation systems. Finally, I'll talk about the automation and engineered solutions business. Another excellent quarter with high single-digit organic sales growth. Robust orders growth was broad-based across our automation and engineered solutions businesses in the quarter, with notable strength from Paragon Medical. Orders input was outstanding, and we are maintaining our full-year forecast for mid single-digit organic growth in the quarter. You asked about the geographies also, Deane, so I'll do that also. We had sales up mid single digits in the U.S. and internationally. Total international was up low single digits, with strength in Europe partially offset from Asia. In the U.S., we have some broad-based strength. We were really solid there.
Europe was up low double digits, and it was our automation, our EMIP business, and our MAD business that did really well there. In Asia, it was a kind of a tale of two stories. We were down mid single digits, driven by China. If you take China out of it, Asia excluding China was up mid to high single digits. A changing dynamic there. With China, we had more of the export issues and things we're dealing with. We're feeling good about the momentum in a lot of regions of the world, and China was an exception to that.
Deane Dray — Managing Director of Equity Research, RBC Capital Markets
That's a great update. Just last one, and it's related to the last point. Dave, any comments about tariffs, the offset, and is that what's driving the softness in China for you as well?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, I'd say what's driving it is a tariff renegotiation of price.
The tariffs need to be renegotiated, they need to be included in the pricing, and our Chinese customers are going back to the government entities and getting higher prices to pay for our products. That's causing us a delay, and there's a lot of, I call it tariff gamesmanship, where they're trying to time the situation to get a lower price, lower tariff. We're competitively very strong there. Our products that we sell are benefiting from that. There aren't viable competitors for most of the things we build. We make high margins when we sell there. We have good customers, we have a good team over there, and it's just going to be delayed. We are solid on the long term.
Deane Dray — Managing Director of Equity Research, RBC Capital Markets
Thanks for all those updates, Dave.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you, Deane.
Matthew Summerville — Managing Director of Equity Research, D.A. Davidson
Thanks. Morning Dave. I was wondering if you could maybe double click a little bit on Paragon. Obviously that business had been a little bit of a source of concern for some coming out of the gate with the whole medical destocking. Can you give a little bit more granularity on the type of organic sales performance and order growth you saw and kind of remind us how we should think about the go forward organic algorithm for that business as well as maybe how it's trending from a profitability standpoint relative to what your view would have been when you bought it.
Thanks.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Right. Excellent question, Matt. Just to remind everybody, Paragon single use and consumable surgical instruments and implantable components in attractive medtech markets with good long term growth rates. Very good long term growth rates. These are mid to high single digit long term growth rates, growing markets, excellent engineering capability, numerous new product wins, would provide upside for years to come and they just had another excellent quarter. The EMG orders led the company and there was substantially up and Paragon led EMG. It was another quarter of just outstanding double digit plus plus orders. We're in a situation now where we're probably about a little more than halfway done with the restructuring that we're doing. That's happening and there's some plant closures involved with that.
I do not want to get into a lot of details but the cost structure is being reduced and at the same time all of that's happening. We're winning new programs and phasing them in and we were out there about a month ago to see everything and it's really going great. The margins are now in line with AMETEK's margins and we think there's more upside. We think this business is going to be a 35%+ EBITDA business and when we're done working on it, which will take another year, but I couldn't be more pleased with what's going on with the deal. Outstanding work by the entire Paragon team. I hope some of you can get out there sometime because it's quite an impressive manufacturing facility that we visited last month and we're very bullish on what's happening at Paragon.
Matthew Summerville — Managing Director of Equity Research, D.A. Davidson
Thanks, David. Maybe just as a follow up, you expressed a couple times in your prepared remarks a little more optimism with respect to process. Can you just peel back an additional layer and give a little bit more granularity on sort of end markets and whether or not you feel like there's a flush, for lack of a better word, that's going to happen here as it relates to maybe some pent up demand?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, it's a very interesting dynamic and it's perceptive for you to pick up on that, Matt. I mean, we looked at process and process improved just about everywhere sequentially on all the markets and all the geographies except China. China was the one area that it didn't improve and we got the tariff repricing negotiation going on, but everywhere else it's on the right trend. We're getting more visibility there and I can think that as that business comes back sometime in next year, we have a business that's leveraged to succeed because the cost structure is really well controlled, the new product innovation is there. On the upside, process is going to have an excellent 2026, I think so.
Matthew Summerville — Managing Director of Equity Research, D.A. Davidson
Thanks, David.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you, Matt.
Andrew Obin — Managing Director of Equity Research, Bank of America
Hi. Yes, good morning. How are you?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good, Andrew, how are you?
Andrew Obin — Managing Director of Equity Research, Bank of America
Yeah, I think what's missing is three slides on nuclear. Sorry, sorry for the joke. Can you just talk? Fantastic quarter. Thank you. Can you just talk about strength in Europe? Can you just talk about the verticals and geographies? Was a nice surprise to hear that. Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, our teams in Europe, it's pretty positive what's happening there. We saw a couple of different places. I mean, we saw an improvement at our Dunkermotoren business. Our automation segment did extremely well. The Paragon elements of Europe did extremely well. Our Materials Analysis division that was selling analytical instruments to the research market did extremely well. Our aerospace business was solid. It wasn't 1-2 things. It all was positive in Europe and it led us in growth. It was up low double digits.
We're happy to see that strength.
Andrew Obin — Managing Director of Equity Research, Bank of America
That's terrific. Maybe could you talk about order numbers? Was another positive surprise in the quarter. Can you just talk about the progression of the order patterns throughout the quarter and, you know, frankly, what happened in October? Did you sustain the momentum into the year end?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
October is not over yet, but I'll give you the month to date. Overall, it's a pretty simple story. September was the strongest month of the quarter and year. Strongest month of the quarter and year to date on both sales and orders. We had a really good September, indicative of momentum as you suggested. October isn't over but it's very solid. I checked it before the meeting and it's very, very solid. We don't see a slowdown in the order side.
Andrew Obin — Managing Director of Equity Research, Bank of America
Thanks so much.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you, Andrew.
Christopher Snyder — Executive Director of Equity Research, Morgan Stanley
Thank you. I wanted to ask about the Q4 top line guide up 10% but you know, Q3 was up 11% and I thought that we were going to see maybe more M&A contribution in Q4 which would then imply like an organic step back versus an easier comp. I guess am I any just helping unpacking of the organic and the M&A and even I guess maybe the FX as we kind of build into that 10% number for Q4. Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I think that it's approximately 10% and we could do a little better, we could do a little worse but we're certainly feeling confident.
I think the acquisitions are in there at a mid to high single digit number and it gets to about 10% but with some of the trade dynamics we got a range on the earnings, but I think we feel very, very confident in Q4.
Christopher Snyder — Executive Director of Equity Research, Morgan Stanley
Thank you, I appreciate that. Oh, sorry.
Dalip Puri — EVP and CFO, AMETEK
I was just going to.
On the foreign exchange side, we're obviously a very global business, but we're primarily dollar centric. As a result, we're not expecting any foreign exchange impact on the top line in Q4 or on the bottom line. As you've seen in the past quarters, we're very insulated from FX volatility, so that shouldn't be a factor.
Christopher Snyder — Executive Director of Equity Research, Morgan Stanley
Got it. Thank you, I appreciate that. I wanted to ask about the industrial and power business, which showed better organic growth in Q3 and you guys raised the guide. Is this all data center power tied or are you seeing positive rate of change on more of the industrial kind, typically focused businesses? Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, I'd say it's more the power side. It's more the power side. The areas that we talked a little bit about, we're seeing backup power systems and micro grids and there are server racks and we also sell to the nuclear industry and they're putting power systems in. It's that backup power system business in the U.S. that's doing quite well. The business that I highlighted last quarter, RTDS, they do the real time simulations for resilient high performance power additions to the grid.
They're the company you go to when you want to expand your power and they're working with the hyperscalers to define the new power additions that they have to put in the power that data center. Those are the two areas that we have most traction. The industrial side of the business is solid, it's not a drag. The upside is on the power side and keep in mind, Chris, we do have a decent sized part of that power business that sells the traditional transmission and distribution infrastructure. As the U.S. has to build out the T&D and you get some of the local micro grids in a pretty good position to benefit from that.
Christopher Snyder — Executive Director of Equity Research, Morgan Stanley
Thank you, I appreciate that and great to see the momentum.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you, Chris.
Julian Mitchell — Analyst, Barclays
Hi, good morning. Thanks very much for the question. Maybe I'd start with the FARO business, and if you could help us understand kind of the progress there in terms of organic trends.
You know, I understand it's still in the sort of acquisition calculus, but maybe help us understand any movement there around sort of organic orders and sales and how you feel about that sort of trending into next year, please.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
As you know, FARO wouldn't show up in our organic because we don't show up in organic till we've owned it for a year. FARO, they hit their number and they hit their number on the top line and the bottom line and had a really good quarter. That integration is doing well. We have a very good team at FARO. Just to remind you, FARO designs and develops 3D metrology and digital reality solutions. We're number one or number two in a bunch of niches in that market and it's an excellent strategic fit with AMETEK and our Creaform business. Those teams are really getting after it and they're working on some new products and working on some new channels and I'm very optimistic about what they're going to be able to do. All arrows are up right now in terms of the acquisition integration.
I spent some time with the team. Dalip and I spent some time with the team just within the last couple weeks and we're very pleased with it. They won't show up in organic but they did meet sales and they did meet their profit commitment for the quarter.
Julian Mitchell — Analyst, Barclays
Thanks very much. My second question would be around, I guess, two parts. One is on the process industry side. I think it's still sluggish right now, but you sounded more optimistic on next year. I wondered if there's something you've seen turning in the orders in the process industry side, and secondly in the U.S., good growth. I wondered if any government shutdown effects weighing in recent months?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I'll take the government shutdown first. To be honest, it hasn't been much of an issue for us. Obviously, if it continues for, you know, or something, it might become a bigger issue, but it's really a non-event at this point. You talked about the process orders. Yeah, they're definitely trending up. Process orders are trending up in all areas, and the one distinction was the China part of the business, and China is heavily part of it as research too. There's an academia research element to it, the China business. In other areas, it's all trending up, and we have told you before, we have a good pipeline of new orders, and we'll make money when the organic growth comes back because that business is powerful. You haven't followed us for a long time, but the process business is a powerful business.
I don't know when it's going to turn up, but when it does, we've run it in the right way, and we keep investing in new products, and we've got the capability, what our customers need, and it's going to eventually turn and be positive on the contribution margin basis for sure.
Julian Mitchell — Analyst, Barclays
Great, thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you, Julian.
Robert Wertheimer — Director of Equity Research, Melius Research
Thanks and good morning.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good morning. Rob.
Robert Wertheimer — Director of Equity Research, Melius Research
You've touched on some of the dynamics here, but it's still a little bit interesting. The broad based, I think you said, growth across EMG versus EIG on core growth. I wondered if you might simplify for us whether that's geographic and market selling cycle, maybe just your thoughts on that gap, which is wider than sometimes it is. Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. I think the biggest thing to understand, Rob, is you gotta go back to the pandemic and you had a supply chain crisis and we have specialized products there and they're OEM products, they're not directly sold to the end user like they are in EIG. It's mainly an EMG issue with specialized products. Everybody wanted to go out and get a bunch of products and put them on the shelf because they needed to supply their customers.
At a period of, you know, 18%-20% quarters in terms of orders and now that, then we went through a period of destock where people have some excess inventory and now the destock's end. What you're seeing is that whole destock end is flowing through the EMG business and it's showing up in places like Paragon Medical, it's showing up in our EMIP businesses, it's showing up in our automation businesses and also in that EMG group. We have our aerospace part of our aerospace business there and that business is going well. All those businesses are kind of hitting on full cylinders and that's why everything's up so high. It's the one thing that's different. We didn't really have a destock in EIG, we had an EMG. Now we're working through that.
Robert Wertheimer — Director of Equity Research, Melius Research
That was perfect. Thank you.
I just wanted a little mini teaching on uninterruptible power supply where you mentioned some of the crossover in data centers. I don't know how much business you had in data centers before and whether this is a fully nimble shift to capitalize or some of that, but a little bit less. Thank you. I'll stop there.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, I mean we have, I'll call it hundreds of millions of dollars in uninterruptible UPS systems. They're sold to places like nuclear power plants or offshore oil and gas wells or the most difficult applications that you can go into where you cannot fail. That business has been a good business for us for a long period of time. We have one product that's used on usually it's basically used on every part of the naval fleet, very industrialized rack mount product. What we did is we took that product and I don't want to say dummied it down, but we made it work for the data center market. They want mission critical, they want those kind of applications.
We're finding some applications where data centers want to buy the best, they want to find the most. They need a product that's more durable. I think on that product we have a backlog of. It's not a tremendous amount. It's north of $25 million and a pipeline of another $30 million, something like that. That's for that product. We have another product in the RTDS space for the simulation systems. We have some places that we're going to be able to play now where they're willing to pay for our technology. Our teams have done a good job of identifying attractive opportunities to expand in current technologies while staying pure to the AMETEK differentiated technology. We think in the long run we don't want to sell things that end up being low margin where you have perfect competition and no one makes money.
It's a low base we have now, but very high growth in that segment.
Robert Wertheimer — Director of Equity Research, Melius Research
Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
You're welcome.
Andrew Buscaglia — Analyst, BNP Paribas
Hey, good morning everyone.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good morning, Andrew.
Andrew Buscaglia — Analyst, BNP Paribas
You know, some of your positive ccommentary is very interesting. You know, some companies are still talking about this kind of customer hesitation to spend and ongoing delays, especially in automation. So, what are your conversations with the customers like that, seem to be a little bit different or where you're seeing a little more confidence. Yeah, can you talk a little bit more about that and elaborate?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, I mean the automation market has been historically a great market for AMETEK and we pick and choose our customers. These are people that pay for our performance. There was a slowdown in the market driven by the pandemic effect and the supply chain crisis and the buying. We kind of talked about this for several quarters when we predicted it. We kind of called bottom last quarter, talked about it a couple quarters, so it's kind of expected for us. I really can't comment on what's going on in other areas. I'm not sure, I'd have to look at that stuff, but what I know is it kind of played out as we thought it would and you know, we're on record talking about it too. It's pretty much what we thought was going to happen.
Andrew Buscaglia — Analyst, BNP Paribas
I guess that's more like your customers are probably comfortable with getting more comfortable with the tariff situation, and at least have some, we have some more clarity relative to six months ago maybe.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I think that's true, Andrew. I think that's true.
Andrew Buscaglia — Analyst, BNP Paribas
Okay. Yeah, interesting. I don't know if you said or you mentioned your price versus cost or how that shook out this quarter?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yes, pricing offset inflation and tariffs. We're very happy with that. Our price offset total inflation and tariffs, and we had a positive spread on top of that. We have highly differentiated nature of the AMETEK product portfolio. We have leadership in these niche markets around the globe, and as we talked about today, these are mission critical products. That's the nature of our products, and we invest a lot in R&D. We're doing a good job of servicing our customers and at the same time offsetting some of the negative events from inflation and tariffs with a positive spread.
Andrew Buscaglia — Analyst, BNP Paribas
Thanks David.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you Andrew.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director of Equity Research, Wolfe Research
Thanks. Good morning.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Morning.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director of Equity Research, Wolfe Research
I wanted to just dig into the automation. I think you called a high single digit organic growth there, David. Obviously, the comps there are quite easy, but it's still quite strong growth. I'm actually wondering, could you maybe just parse out what you're seeing? I mean, I think a lot of that's in Europe. Inventory adjustments versus end market demand. Any end market color, customer demand would be really helpful. Thanks.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. We talked about several quarters how the European market was lagging. We talked about how we had an incredibly strong position with German machine builders. We talked about the situation. It was just a matter of time, and I think it's just changing.
The one thing that would be different for us is we've talked about before when a lot of people talk about automation, you have to make a distinction between discrete automation and process automation. You're doing factory automation, I'll call it. We play in the factory automation, but that's not our largest market. We're really in discrete automation where you have to move things very quickly and very precisely. All the precision machines that are doing things in the different end markets that have to be very precise, that's our sweet spot. There's a certain set of customers there that we deal with. It's the medical customers. It's very precise research equipment. It's like the S&P 500 in terms of the end markets, but it's the most precise equipment, and it's mainly discrete automation.
We may be seeing the factory automation may still be slower, and discrete automation as a subset or as a distinct niche for us is strong, and we have kind of the best products there, and those customers are coming back. We had a great, great performance this month, and we were coming off the bottom there with some of the destock. I take your point that it's easy comp, but it is what it is.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director of Equity Research, Wolfe Research
Yeah, yeah. I think what I was trying to dig into is, sorry, how much is just destock comps, easy comps versus a real inflection in customer demand? I'm not sure if you've actually got the sell-through data there, but my second question is really around the EMG margins. Obviously, really great momentum there. 25%. Pretty close to where EMG margins have peaked in the past. But, with Paragon, where do you think that sort of margin objective or target might be for EMG going forward?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I think Paragon gives us the opportunity to increase it further. When we sit down and we talk with that business, we'll set a target for next year. Certainly, I would expect we have the capability to have record margins in EMG going forward.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director of Equity Research, Wolfe Research
Great, thank you.
Robert Jamieson — Analyst, Vertical Research Partners
Thanks, guys. Congratulations today.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thanks, Robert.
Robert Jamieson — Analyst, Vertical Research Partners
Wanted to get your overall view on overall short cycle experience. Last quarter you talked about short cycle bottoming. Just curious how you're thinking about this as we head into next year, what you saw in the quarter and what you're seeing so far in early 4Q?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, when we talk about our business, we're more of a mid cycle than short cycle. Just maybe a little change and just to make sure we're on the same page. I think this is a result of the pandemic, the supply chain crisis, and I think that we're in an upward trend now. I think it's still early to talk about next year. These automation, these EMG areas and med tech, they're solid and air and defense remains strong.
It feels really good on some of these businesses with solid positions and we are winning businesses, we are winning new share for these businesses. EMG is kind of firing on all cylinders now.
Robert Jamieson — Analyst, Vertical Research Partners
Great, thank you. I just wondered with a lot of capacity, can we get an update on the M&A pipeline? Anything that your areas that you're particularly interested in, anything like that would be helpful.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Our pipeline remains very strong. We're actively looking at a number of high quality deals. We have, as Dalip talked about, our capacity to fund them. It's strong. We remain disciplined looking at our returns on capital. We've done it for a long period of time and there's no change in that. The pipeline includes a variety of deals and there are different deal sizes and they're in different end markets, or all end markets that we're in now though. Our teams are as active as they've ever been working on deals.
I really think that we have the opportunity to differentiate our performance with the M&A element of our growth strategy combined with our balance sheet and cash flow positions. It's a good time for us. When you combine our operational excellence capability and our M&A capability, I'm looking to use those two factors to drive performance over the next couple of years.
Robert Jamieson — Analyst, Vertical Research Partners
Great, thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you.
Michael Anastasiou — Analyst, TD Cowen
Good morning, this is Michael on for Joe.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Hello Michael.
Michael Anastasiou — Analyst, TD Cowen
I wanted to unpack the A&D performance. Previously you mentioned high scale digital organic in the quarter, related content growth in that area. Is that content growth mainly related to FARO? Can you maybe unpack for us expectations for a normalized growth range for A&D going forward? You had several years whether it's on the EIG side or EMG side high single-digit growth. Just trying to understand how to map that going forward. Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
First of all, FARO is not in the A&D segment, so zero contributes to the A&D performance. The other thing is in the quarter organically we're up low double digits. For the year we're continuing to confirm high single digits, and in the quarter the thing about me that struck was it was balanced. I mean we had commercial OEM was very strong, we had aftermarket was very strong, the defense markets were very strong. We're continuing to win content on product programs to expand where we're going in the future. We're not talking about next year right now. When I think about the aerospace group, when I think about the aerospace business, when I think about the aerospace team, their backlog remains strong and they have strong positions on key programs. It looks optimistic.
Scott Graham — Analyst, Seaport Research Partners
Hey, good morning. Congratulations on the quarter, Dave. I wanted to maybe step back and 40,000 ft this and I know when you came on board, you know, back, you know, eight years ago, one of the big things that you were going to champion was an improvement in the front end and the top line focus as opposed to what has historically been more of a kind of margin lean, let's put it that way. I know you've done a lot of things internally, but it's been sort of an up and down industrial environment. I was just hoping you indicated just now you won some business. I know A&D has been a good market for you since that time. Again, industrial, other areas have been up and down.
Would you see now that winning of business starting to spread out into other end markets given the work that's been done on top line initiatives on a going forward basis as the industrial economy improves?
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
It's an interesting point. If you had a couple years of below 50 PMIs, and I don't remember the last time that happened. I think I was at an investor conference and they told me it never happened. I think that we're extremely well positioned for growth and it's across all of our businesses. I'd say as the industrial economy picks up and you recover from having negative PMIs for basically 2-2.5 years, I think you'll see some improvements. The other thing I'd point you to is I've been CEO, I've been with AMETEK 35 years. I've been CEO for nine years.
Over those nine years we've averaged a 4% organic growth. This quarter, right now, when you have 4% organic growth, you have double digit on the top line, you have double digit orders, you have double digit earnings. That's pretty much what we've done for the last 9-10 years. If you go back, it's further than that. We have a model, it's consistent, we have a great team working on it. I do think that we're going to participate in a greater way in terms of organic growth as the industrial economy improves.
Scott Graham — Analyst, Seaport Research Partners
Thank you.
David Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you, Scott.
Kevin Coleman — VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer, AMETEK
Thank you again, Andrew. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. As a reminder, a replay of the webcast can be accessed in the Investors section of ametek.com. Have a great day.
Source: AMETEK INC/ earnings call transcript (2025-10-30). Management commentary and analyst Q&A are reproduced as delivered; speaker roles as stated on the call.

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