“Aerospace should improve sequentially from first quarter, driven by ramping OE production rates and higher defense spend, supported by incremental improvements in the supply chain, while Process Automation Technology will be slightly weaker than first quarter due to incremental pressure stemming from the Middle East conflict.”

In context

“arter adjusted EPS bridge in the appendix of our presentation. Running out the results, we ended the quarter with nearly $100 million of free cash flow, down from $200 million last year. The benefit of higher operational income was offset by timing of collections in the Middle East and inventory headwinds in Aerospace, given the mechanical supply chain dynamics. Collections have improved meaningfully in April, and we remain confident in our full year outlook. On capital deployment, we returned $1.8 billion to shareholders through roughly $1 billion of share repurchases and $800 million of dividends while funding over $220 million in CapEx to drive future growth. Let's now turn to Slide 7 to discuss our second quarter guidance. We anticipate second quarter organic sales growth of 2% to 4%. Aerospace should improve sequentially from first quarter, driven by ramping OE production rates and higher defense spend, supported by incremental improvements in the supply chain, while Process Automation Technology will be slightly weaker than first quarter due to incremental pressure stemming from the Middle East conflict. Both Building Automation and Industrial expect to be roughly in line with their full year outlook for these businesses. We expect segment margin to be in the range of 22.2% to 22.5%, down 10 to up 20 basis points, led by pricing and productivity actions that we expect will largely offset rising inflation and unfavorable mix in Process Automation and Technology due to timing of high-margin catalyst shipments and the impact from the Middle East. We are also seeing an acceleration in the stranded cost takeout ahead of the Aerospace spin. On the segment level, we expect strongest margin expansion in Building Automation, while Aerospace margin will be roughly flat. Adjusted EPS is expected to be $2.40 at the midpoint, reflecting a higher effective tax rate in the quarter, amounting to about $0”