“Capital returned to shareholders through the dividend and share repurchase is expected to be approximately 100% of free cash flow in 2025.”

In context

“asing return of capital to shareholders in 2025 as we complete our portfolio transformation. We continue to have four primary capital allocation priorities. The first is reinvestment in the business, and Emerson spent approximately 8% of sales on RD&E in 2024 and we expect a similar level of spend in 2025. Both Test & Measurement and AspenTech spent around 20% of their sales on RD&E and growth opportunities in these businesses, which is a reflection of our commitment to realize these growth opportunities. As discussed previously, we are increasing our share repurchases to approximately $2 billion and expect around $1 billion in the first quarter. We are also entering our 69th year of increased dividends per share. And this quarter, we increased the quarterly dividend per share to $0.5275. Capital returned to shareholders through the dividend and share repurchase is expected to be approximately 100% of free cash flow in 2025. Over the past three years, we have been focused on portfolio transformation and allocated capital primarily to strategic M&A and paying down debt. We have also returned $6.5 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks during that time. After the successful completion of the actions announced today, we expect our net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio to be under two and well within the credit rating agencies' metrics to maintain our A2A credit ratings. As we move forward beyond 2025, we plan to maintain our A2A credit ratings. The Company's expected future free cash flows and debt capacity within the range of the A2A metrics provide sufficient flexibility to continue meaningful returns of capital to shareholders and execution of strategic bolt-on acquisitions. Finally, I would”