“While we will remain disciplined, we expect to increase investments as we progress through the year to support end-market demand improvement in the second half and into the future.”

In context

“hare. Full year adjusted free cash flow conversion remains forecasted in the range of 90% to 100%. Turning to our outlook for the second quarter. First, looking at external macroeconomic forecasts, both global GDP and IPI are currently expected to improve year-on-year and sequentially. The softness we experienced in Q1 in consumer electronics and consumer retail is expected to continue into Q2. We expect both sequential and year-on-year increase in auto bills, while healthcare procedure volumes are anticipated to be similar to Q1 levels and industrial end markets are expected to remain mixed. As discussed, we implemented very aggressive cost controls in the first quarter given the challenging start to the year, including on travel, advertising, external services and head count management. While we will remain disciplined, we expect to increase investments as we progress through the year to support end-market demand improvement in the second half and into the future. Including these factors, our expectations for Q2 are for total adjusted sales to be in the range of $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion versus $8.4 billion last year or down 6% to 8% year-on-year. Organic sales is expected to be down low to mid-single digits, which includes the forecasted year-on-year headwind of approximately 1.5% from disposable respirators. And finally, foreign currency translation is expected to be approximately a minus 2% headwind to sales versus last year’s Q2 and divestitures a year-on-year headwind of minus 1%. From an EPS perspective, we estimate that second quarter adjusted earnings per share will be in the range of $1.50 to $1.75, including a pretax restructuring charge of $175 million to $250 million or $0.25 to $0.35 per share. This range also incorporates the conti”