Ralliant (NYSE:RAL) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Tuesday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
Ralliant's Q1 2026 results exceeded guidance, prompting an increase in the full-year outlook with revenue expected between $2.185 billion and $2.245 billion.
The company's defense backlog surpassed $1 billion, and a productivity program aims for $50-$60 million in annualized savings by 2028.
Q1 revenue rose 11% year-over-year to $535 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.6% and adjusted EPS of $0.57.
North America drove 16% organic revenue growth, while Western Europe and the rest of the world saw slight declines due to macroeconomic uncertainties.
The board increased the share repurchase authorization to $500 million, with plans for a $100 million accelerated share repurchase in Q2 2026.
Full Transcript
Donna (Conference Facilitator)
Hello, my name is Donna and I will be your conference facilitator this morning. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Ralliant Corporation's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Results Conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the speaker's remarks, we'll open the call for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, please press Star then two. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Nathan McCuran, Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. McCuran, you may begin your conference.
Nathan McCuran (Vice President of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Donna. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining Ralliant's first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Nathan McCuran, Vice President of Investor Relations. Today we'll walk through our results, highlight key operational progress and provide our outlook for the second quarter and full year. 2026. I'm joined today by Tammy Newcomb, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Neal Reynolds, our Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release issued this morning and today's presentation can be accessed on the investors section of our [email protected] Please note that we'll be discussing certain non U.S. GAAP financial measures on today's call. A reconciliation of these items to US U.S. GAAP can be found in the appendix to our presentation. During today's call and unless otherwise stated, we are comparing our first quarter 2026 results to the same period in 2025. During the call we will make forward looking statements, including statements regarding events or developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from any forward looking statements we make today. Information regarding these risks and uncertainties is available in our annual report on Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2026 and updated in our Form 10Q to be filed after market today. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Tammy.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us for our Q1 2026 earnings call. We started 2026 with a solid first quarter performance reflecting the delivery of our strategy supported by disciplined execution across the teams. For today's call, I'll begin with an overview of our financial performance followed by an update on the progression of our profitable growth strategy. Then I'll invite Neil to walk through additional details and leave Time for your questions at the end. Let's start on Slide 4 with a business and outlook update. First, our Q1 results were above the high end of our guidance and we are raising the full year 2026 outlook as we expect test and measurement growth to remain elevated and our defense backlog has now surpassed $1 billion. Second, we are capitalizing on higher growth secular demand across electrification and defense with a clear focus on executing our profitable growth strategy. Third, we initiated an enterprise productivity program expected to deliver 50 to 60 million dollars of run rate savings by 2028. Last, we are increasing capital returns to shareholders. We began to execute share repurchases during the first quarter and we are now targeting share repurchases of approximately 50% of free cash flow. Going forward, our board has increased our share repurchase authorization to $500 million and we plan to execute $100 million accelerated share repurchase program in Q2. Our Q1 financial results are on slide 5. In the first quarter revenue was $535 million up 11% year over year with a book to bill above 1.1. The results were balanced across the segments with both achieving 9% organic revenue growth. This performance reflects the disciplined execution of our teams and a portfolio that is increasingly aligned to higher growth markets driven by electrification and defense. Sensors and safety systems had robust demand across all end markets. Test and measurement returned to growth following three consecutive quarters of sequential improvement. Adjusted EBITDA margins of 18.6% and adjusted EPS of 57 cents were both above the high end of our guidance ranges reflecting strong operating leverage on higher volume and early benefits from productivity actions already underway. Our trailing twelve month free cash flow conversion was 105%. Next I'll provide regional and end market Trends on slide 6 and 7. North America is our largest region with over 55% of revenue and where we see broad based momentum with 16% organic revenue growth supported by ongoing investment in defense programs plus AI is accelerating our customers innovation cycles from data center infrastructure to advanced electronics and the global power grid. Western Europe and the rest of world together represent approximately 30% of our revenue and both were slightly down organically as pockets of recovery were overshadowed by ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. China is approximately 15% of our revenue and grew 5% organically this quarter due to government funded projects tied to AI and energy related infrastructure investments within our end markets, defense and space delivered more than 20% organic growth. Multi year backlog now exceeds $1 billion spanning more than 40 programs across legacy and new products supporting Ocean land and air safety systems. Utilities posted record orders this quarter, reinforcing the strength and durability of demand in this end market. While revenue growth was softer due to shipment timing, the order strength enhances our visibility going forward. Our industrial manufacturing and other end markets showed early signs of short cycle recovery across most geographies as customers are increasing. Investments in automation, semiconductor equipment, life sciences, H Vac and data center, cooling, test and measurement delivered a meaningful step up this quarter building on the sequential Momentum established in 2025. Improved customer sentiment drove orders resulting in mid to low teens organic growth across diversified electronics and communications. Despite broad based strength across most semiconductor customers, overall revenue declined due to the completion of a large customer project last year. Now turning to Slide 8, our profitable growth strategy is intentionally balanced and designed to perform through the cycle. Our winning growth factors align with market tailwinds in electrification and defense where long standing customer positions and differentiated capabilities position us for elevated growth. Complementing this, our stronghold positions are anchored in a broad customer base with more modest growth profiles where precision technologies deliver durable demand, attractive margins and reoccurring revenue. Enabling, our strategy is the AI infused Ralliant Business System or rbs, which brings discipline, consistency and enterprise scale to how we operate and execute. Turning to slide nine, we are capitalizing on long term investment cycles in electrification and defense where our test and measurement insights, precision sensors and safety critical systems play an essential role. The power grid is a strategic imperative. Rising AI workloads and increasing global energy consumption are driving the need for a grid that is more reliable and intelligent. We play a critical role in the global power grid. Our precision sensors and predictive analytics monitor and protect essential assets such as transformers, turbines and gas insulated substations, helping utilities prevent outages and extend asset life. In addition, we support new energy infrastructure through test and measurement solutions used to validate grid scale, energy storage and advanced power systems for both legacy and emerging applications like nuclear fusion power, and thermal challenges extend into the data center. Our test and measurement instruments support the validation of advanced semiconductors and electronic systems, while our industrial sensors provide thermal pressure and fluid measurement that enable reliable cooling and continuous operation. As AI becomes physical power design and battery performance are key constraints. This is where our precision power test and measurement solutions are essential for R and D engineers developing the next generation of AI enabled electronics. In defense, we are benefiting from multi year replenishment, demand and modernization in legacy defense programs. We're a trusted supplier of mission critical ground, flight and launch safety systems where precision and reliability are non negotiable. In parallel defense modernization is increasing activity across R and D labs where our test and measurement solutions enable the development and validation of advanced communications and power storage systems. Across the portfolio, we participate in the product realization life cycle from early concept and validation to field deployment and long term operation. Test and measurement provides early visibility into the customer R and D, while sensors and safety systems support a large installed base for production through ongoing field monitoring. Next on slide 10 we leverage RBS everywhere as both an enterprise growth enabler and to drive productivity improvements. We continue funding the highest return opportunities in advanced manufacturing, commercial and innovation to enable higher organic growth in defense and space. We are a key supplier to the majority of the Pentagon's priority munitions programs. Several, including FAD, PAC3 and Tomahawk, are scaling production at roughly two to five times historic levels and we are making targeted investments to expand manufacturing capacity and support reliable execution in utilities. We continue to see robust demand supported by multi year grid modernization and resiliency initiatives. Later this year we plan to expand our Precision Sensor facility in Upstate New York to support further growth. Now on slide 11 we are committed to expanding adjusted EBITDA margins and to help drive this we have initiated an Enterprise Productivity Program. The Program management team reports directly to me with a multi year target to deliver 50 to 60 million dollars of run rate annualized savings by 2028. Post spin, we are simplifying our organization and how work gets done. RBS is how we make workflows visible to identify productivity improvements and even more importantly, ensure sustainment. To date the team has acted on approximately $20 million of run rate annualized savings. The drivers of the savings are identified in cost of sales and G and A for cost of sales. The focus is enterprise strategic Sourcing and a new group purchasing office to identify and act on synergies across materials, maintenance and facilities. Within gna. We have identified ways to increase productivity through simplification AI enhanced workflows and leveraging lower cost locations to optimize labor. Recently, more than 500 employees participated in our first company wide CEO Kaizen focused on over 40 growth and productivity charters. This deep rooted culture of continuous improvement aligns well with our new Enterprise productivity program. Slide 12 is a reminder of our value creation framework we laid out at our Investor Day last June. Together, revenue growth, margin expansion, strong free cash flow and disciplined capital allocation position us well to deliver long term value for our customers, employees and shareholders. Next, I'll invite Neil to review our financial results, go deeper on our productivity program and provide an update on our guidance.
Neal Reynolds (Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Tammy. Good morning everyone. Please turn to Slide 14 Q1 results were above our guidance ranges across all metrics and were largely driven by a faster than anticipated improvement in our shorter cycle businesses and increased productivity savings. Q1 revenue of 535 million was up 11% on a reported basis and up 9% on an organic basis. Total growth includes approximately 2 percentage points of FX benefit primarily in Western Europe and China. Both segments delivered high single digit organic growth year over year led by strong execution against backlog in defense and space, broad based improvement across test and measurement and pockets of growth in industrial manufacturing. As I shift to EBITDA and eps, I'll note that we have included a table in our appendix that provides a reconciliation to normalized adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS for each quarter in the full year of 2025. These normalized metrics adjust the first 3/4 of 2025 results to reflect our fully ramped public company costs and higher post spin employee costs. Given our mid year spin and the increase in our cost structure following the spin, we believe normalizing adjusted EBITDA to reflect a full year of our post spin cost structure as a more like for like comparison. For 2026 results, adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter was 18.6% on a normalized basis. This represented a 270 basis point improvement from the prior year driven by operating leverage on higher revenue and productivity savings achieved in the first quarter. I will cover more details on our productivity program shortly. Adjusted diluted EPS of $0.57 increased 39% on a normalized basis driven by revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. Our free cash flow was 10 million, a step down year over year primarily due to timing. Our trailing twelve month free cash flow conversion remains resilient at 105% above our target of greater than 95%. I'll turn now to segment year over year performance starting on slide 15 with sensors and safety systems. Q1 revenue of 324 million increased 11% on a reported basis and 9% organically. Defense and Space's organic revenue grew 21% on strong shipments. Our backlog continues to build with robust demand for critical programs and replenishment in missiles and munitions. Organic revenue across industrial manufacturing and other was up mid single digits with robust demand across North America, China and our rest of world geographies. Utilities had a record quarter of orders with continued robust demand. Organic revenue growth was softer this quarter due to customer shipment timing. Adjusted EBITDA margin for sensors and safety systems was 28.4%, a 70 basis point improvement on a normalized basis primarily due to higher operating leverage which was partially offset by the dilutive mix impact from higher defense and space growth Turning now to test and Measurement on Slide 16, Test and Measurement returned to growth in the quarter with revenue of $210 million, up 12% on a reported basis and 9% organically. Test and measurement also delivered its highest quarterly book to bill since 2022 with a book to bill between 1.1 and 1.2. Communications, which represents 12% of overall revenue, grew double digits organically. Our communications applications are predominantly serving defense and government customers whose modernization programs and technology upgrades are driving demand for precise and reliable test equipment across defense applications. Diversified Electronics, which represents roughly half of test and measurement, also delivered double digit organic growth driven by broad based improvement across humanoid, robotics, energy storage and advanced research. Semiconductor organic revenue declined high single digits primarily driven by lapping a large customer project. As we mentioned last quarter, excluding this customer headwind, semi-conductor organic revenue grew double digits as customer capex investment increased in power related semi-conductors, especially in wideband gap applications. Test and Measurement Adjusted EBITDA margin was 11.9%, an improvement of 700 basis points on a normalized basis. This margin expansion is a testament to the significant operating leverage in test and measurement and to the execution by the team to quickly implement actions identified in the Enterprise Productivity program. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow on Slide 17, we ended the quarter with $268 million in cash and cash equivalents. During the quarter we completed the refinancing of our 18 month term loan, extending maturity and amending certain covenants with more favorable terms. We also returned $56 million of capital to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases. Last week our board authorized an increase of our share repurchase authorization to $500 million. We are now targeting repurchases to be about 50% of our free cash flow going forward. As a part of that, we are planning to execute an accelerated share repurchase program of $100 million during the second quarter. Turning to our outlook for the second quarter and our updated full year 2026 guide on slide 18 in Q2, we expect revenue of 540 to $556 million which represents 7 to 10% year over year organic growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be between 18.5% and 19.5% with year over year normalized margin expansion driving operating leverage on higher revenue and savings from our enterprise productivity program. Adjusted EPS is expected to be between $0.58 and $0.64, a 35 to 49% normalized increase driven by revenue growth, margin expansion and a reduction in share count. We expect weighted average diluted shares outstanding of approximately 112 million for Q2 after executing our anticipated $100 million accelerated share repurchase planned. Given the strength of Q1 and with more confidence in further recovery in our shorter cycle businesses throughout the year, we are increasing our full year 2026 guidance across all metrics. We now expect revenue of $2.185 billion to $2.245 billion, adjusted EBITDA margin of 19.5 to 20.5% and adjusted EPS of $2.53 to $2.69. On slide 19, I'll go deeper into the Enterprise Productivity program that Tammy introduced. While 2025 adjusted EBITDA margin on a normalized basis was below our through cycle range, we established an investor day last June of low to mid 20%. We have taken quick action to begin a path back to the midpoint of our through cycle range by 2028. With the enterprise Productivity Program, we anticipate driving run rate annualized savings of 50 million to $60 million by 2028. We've already begun to implement the program. Building on our previously announced 9 to $11 million cost savings program, we actioned another approximately $10 million of annualized savings in Q1. We expect 2026 in year savings of 10 to 12 million connected to these actions exiting 2026 at an annualized run rate of 20 million. We are targeting to complete all remaining actions for the program by the end of 2027 and expect savings to continue to ramp until delivering 50 to 60 million dollars of run rate savings in 2028. We expect the Enterprise Productivity Program savings along with strong baseline incremental margins to result in approximately 50% total incremental adjusted EBITDA margin through 2028. Our guidance range for 2026 assumes a 35 to 40% baseline incremental adjusted EBITDA margin excluding productivity savings slightly higher than our through cycle incremental margin expectations. Given higher revenue growth and favorable test and measurement mix, the 10 to $12 million of in year productivity savings would add another approximately 10 percentage points of incremental margin, resulting in a total 45 to 50% incremental adjusted EBITDA market for 2026. In 2027 and 2028. We expect baseline incremental margins to be more in line with our through cycle expectations but can vary based on the level of revenue growth and mix. Additionally, the 20 to 25 million dollars per year of additional productivity program savings is expected to add another 15 to 20 percentage points to incremental margins, resulting in a total incremental adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 50% in 2027 and 2028. This gives us a clear path to the midpoint of our long term EBITDA margin range. By that time, we are focused on driving this margin expansion to provide a resilient source of cash to help us achieve our disciplined capital allocation priorities. I want to remind everyone of our capital allocation priorities on Slide 20. Our top priority remains organic reinvestment. We are investing in capacity expansion in defense and utilities to serve identify demand. We have a disciplined review process that Tammy and I oversee that sets a high bar for organic investment targeting returns far in excess of our cost of capital. Our next priority is returning capital to shareholders. In addition to our recent actions and commitment to share repurchases, last week our Board of Directors authorized our next quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share. We continue to actively monitor the MA landscape and build our funnel of potential tuck in acquisitions. We are committed to balancing these capital allocation priorities against our target cash balances and our long term net leverage target of 1.5 to 2 times adjusted EBITDA. With that, I'll turn it back to Tammy to wrap before opening it up for questions.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
I want to close by providing a few key takeaways. First, we are executing on our profitable growth strategy. We are using our Ralliant Business System (RBS) toolkit to identify areas to capitalize on secular demand across high growth factors. We expect Ralliant Business System (RBS) to continue to serve as a competitive advantage, enabling customer innovation and operating efficiencies, ultimately enabling us to perform with financial discipline. Second, we are driving margin expansion. The combination of strong incremental margins paired with our enterprise productivity program is expected to increase our adjusted EBITDA margins to the midpoint of our through cycle range by 2028. Third, we have confidence in Ralliant's value creation potential and returning capital to shareholders. Our board increased our share repurchase authorization and through this we expect approximately 50% of our free cash flow to be returned to shareholders going forward. As I wrap a big shout out to our approximately 7,000 employees around the globe for their ownership and grit to win as one team. Our teams have demonstrated operating rigor with the ability to profitably evolve our portfolio and deliver in any environment. With that, I'll open up the lines for Q and A.
Operator
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star one On your telephone keypad at this time, a confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press Star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. We do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow up again, that is Star one to register a question at this time. Today's first question is coming from Julian Mitchell of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Julian Mitchell (Equity Analyst at Barclays)
Hi, good morning. Just a solid set of results. Just wanted to understand perhaps the sales growth guidance. So I understand sort of you talked a lot about improving end markets, but the year on year sales guide embeds something of a slowdown in the back half. Maybe that's reflected expecting tough comps, but maybe just flesh that out a bit more. I think the half on half sales are guided to step up a bit less this year than happened last year. So maybe kind of frame how you're thinking about the sort of confluence of comps versus the end market movements and semis is a market I'm particularly interested in. You're finally, I think coming to the end of that tough comp. How does that business grow from here?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Julian. Thanks for the kind words there. As we think about the guidance in the second half, the TNM business certainly performed well in Q1. Revenue was slightly above our expectations. It's actually the orders in the book to Bill that pushed for the full year raise in our guidance and that business is a short cycle business. We get solid 90 to 120 days of visibility there and we do see the order increases. The funnels are solid. Our new products which we launched in the latter part of last year are doing well. But when you step back, there's also a lot of uncertainty in the environment. We're going to control what we can control around spending time with our customers, continuing to launch new products and focusing where the higher growth opportunities are. But I do think it's prudent at this point to think about the second half as we have.
Neal Reynolds (Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, Julian, let me just add on to that. So if you think about normally how we seasonally work, we're roughly about 48% of revenue in the first half, 52% in the second half. If you look at the guidance that would represent more like a 49% first half, 51% second half. So I'd say all else equal. Tammy kind of talked about some of the uncertainty in the macro. We probably would be the midpoint more towards the high end of the range that we gave, just based on what we've seen seasonally before, the demand remains strong. I think we feel good about the momentum that we're seeing in the short cycle businesses. Clearly the defense backlog gives us a lot of confidence about where that business is headed. But given the uncertainty on the macro, potential supply disruptions in the second half of the year, those are things we're just being cautious about. But from a demand perspective, I think it would normally land towards the higher end of the range, all else equal.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
And just to close out on semi. That was the second part of your question, Julian. Underlying strength in semi across a broad set of customers. We're still lapping a large customer deal from last year. We've got another quarter of that, but the underlying strength is strong.
Julian Mitchell (Equity Analyst at Barclays)
That's great to hear, thank you. And then just my follow up would be around the EBITDA margin outlook. So I think you have, you know, a very strong increase, second quarter dialed in, sort of over 300 points off the normalized base. The second half I think is dialing in maybe a sort of 21% EBITDA margin. So maybe it's about 100 basis points of increase year on year. Is that just because you've got perhaps slightly lower sales growth dialed in and so there's just less of a margin increase of steady leverage? Is it conservatism, anything happening with mix or cost phasing, anything like that? That explains that second half kind of more muted margin expansion year on year.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Julian, as you think about margin performance, it's the formula would be revenue growth. We do have some headwinds in mix as well as the execution of our enterprise productivity program to drive some cost optimization there. It's those three factors that's great. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is coming from Chris Snyder of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Chris Snyder (Equity Analyst at Morgan Stanley)
Thank you. I wanted to ask about defense and space within the sensing and safety segment. So obviously 21% organic growth is really good, but based on the backlog build in the quarter, it seems like demand is actually even well above that level. So I guess you know, and I know you guys are working on investing in capacity. So can you just maybe talk about how you think growth there, you know, goes as the year goes on? Could it step higher as the capacity comes online? I do know the comps there also get harder. And then just following that, you guys said in the, in the release that, you know, given some of the visibility you have there, it positions the business to or overall rallying for above target growth. Was that a 26 comment or you know, is that, you know, this will remain the case in 27, 28 just because this is, you know, very long cycle at pacsc
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
with your first question around backlog, the backlog that we talked about, the billion dollars, that's a multi year backlog. So think of that as two to three years of backlog. And we certainly work closely with those customers to ensure that we're meeting their requirements for on time delivery. And we already have begun capacity expansion. We've been at it for over two years here to keep up with the demands that we're seeing in that space and we will continue. Much of that capacity expansion has come through productivity initiatives and focus on strategic sourcing in the supply chain. And as we move forward and we think out towards 27 and 28, we do believe we do see a need to expand actually physical capacity there. So we see that opportunity and are continuing to execute against that. From a growth standpoint, if you think about our investor day, which was in June, we had talked about 3 to 5% through the cycle where we stand today and you think kind of near term to midterm at the high end of that, just on an organic basis, higher than that in 2026, as you can see from the guide. But if you even think in the out years, we think with the increase that we've seen in both defense and in the utility space that we will be towards the high end of that 3 to 5. So in the 5 range. And that would be on an organic basis without M and A.
Neal Reynolds (Chief Financial Officer)
And let me just add on to that Chris, a bit. So if you think about defense, while we do see higher growth rates, I think, you know, double digit, I think over that kind of, you know, both in 26 and then out beyond 26 in terms of kind of that double digit growth rate, changing the trajectory, I think out beyond 26, as Tammy said, to that kind of mid single digit level as you get beyond this year, obviously have been higher this year to get outside of that trough. But Defense also comes with a little bit of just on the margin side, a little bit of a mix impact. You know those defense products are at margins that are below the company average. So those are things that we're balancing and we've got that all baked in the outlook that we gave today. No, appreciate that. And maybe just following up on that last point, you know, you guys incurred pretty significant mix headwinds in Q1 for the sensing segment, defense up 21 and utilities only up 1 on kind of the more premium margin side is my understanding. So, you know, is that just all volume leverage coming through? Because we were just surprised to see the margins there up both sequentially and year on year. Or did you start to realize some of the benefits from the productivity actions you guys have been putting in place? Thank you. Yeah, I think I'll hit this one, Chris. I think it's a little bit of both. One thing is you do see some, you know, mixed challenge with the defense growing faster. It's great because it's got a great growth rate and we have a nice backlog there. And so, you know, very good business for us. But you do have a little bit of that. There is some of the cost, you know, savings program, you know, elements, you know, coming, you know, coming into this as well. And then clearly you've got the, you know, the volume leverage. And one thing I'll say is that the defense piece can be a bit lumpy, I think both in revenue and in margins in quarter to quarter as we're making this transition to these, I'd say this bigger backlog, you know, focused on, you know, missiles and munitions and things like that. As we start to see that surge demand come through, we will see lumpy quarters both from our revenue and from margin perspective. I think in Q1, I think that was a bit positive for us. I think as you go throughout the year that can be a bit lumpy. You may see quarters where it's a bit lower as well. So I think your instincts are right and we just saw a little more positivity there. But I think as you look throughout the year, we will see overall margin expansion throughout the year. I think test and measurement will certainly help with that if we continue to see that cycle improve. Sensor safety might be a little bit lumpy, but I would say both will be in nice target ranges for us as you get to look at the full year results. Thank you guys. Great update.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is coming from Dean Dray of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Kenny Simon
Hi, this is Kenny Simon for Dean today. Congrats on the strong quarter. I think AMD really stood out to us and utility as well. Can you just help us visualize or understand the applications that this defense sensors go into? And on the utility side specifically, how much is this business tied to the transformers sensor business? How long and then how long the back version would be helpful for us?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, thank you. Thanks for the kind words. On the defense, you can think of the backlog build predominantly in legacy production programs. These are programs for missiles and munitions that have been in use for decades that we're seeing a replenishment cycle on that is from a dollar of backlog, the majority of the dollars of backlog. The other piece of the backlog though that will help us in the out years is the new product innovation that's happening and that's customer funded innovation that's in the defense modernization space. And that quantity of programs is up almost 60% over the last two years. So that's the composition of the backlog that continues to grow from replenishment. And no surge demand is in that current backlog. This is just real orders from customers for replenishment. If I shift to utilities in the utility space, our precision sensors and analytics solutions are used to keep critical assets within the grid up and running and extending their life. So that's the precision sensor side of the business. Also in the grid, our test and measurement solutions are being used to to bring to market new power storage solutions as well as powering new energies like nuclear. So those are the places that we play in defense and utilities.
Kenny Simon
Appreciate that caller. And just following up on your free cash flow, what was the timing issue this quarter and do you have rough framework or guidance for the full year 20, 26 in terms of conversion or margin given you're now committing half of that to buybacks going forward and just confirming the 95% plus framework has not changed for the out years. Yep. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. First of all, the 95% plus, you know, free cash flow conversion rate has not changed. Q1 is seasonally normally a lower free cash flow quarter. We have some employee payments, think about variable comp, you know, other payments that go out to employees usually in that Q1. It's also a lower revenue quarter seasonally versus Q4. And lastly we had a very strong quarter in Q4 as well. So just a bit of timing there I think both from natural seasonality in the business as well as I think a strong previous quarter as we look forward in the remainder of the year. I don't think that free cash flow conversion changes and I think if you look at the buyback that we're Talking about that 50% or so target for free cash flow return to shareholders. I think what we're talking about here is in line with that maybe a little bit north 50% based on what we're seeing. So no change there. I think it's seasonal in Q1 and we should see strong, I think cash flow performance as you look throughout the remainder of the year. That's great. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is coming from Kevin Wilson of Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
Kevin Wilson
Hey, good morning. Great quarter. Wondering if you could speak to how you see the capacity expansion and other growth investments you're making in Qualitrol playing out. You mentioned prepared remarks, the facility expansion later in 2026. So maybe if you could quantify that or otherwise provide color around how much sort of capacity or throughput you could get from that expansion, maybe how much the investment is there and when you expect that capacity to come online and translate to the top line. Thanks.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, I'll start with that one. As you think about capacity, think about something that's been ongoing for several years here of how we the capacity in our facilities. A lot of that comes from our RBS playbook and how we get more productivity in ourselves. In addition, we've added multiple shifts, so move from one shift to two or three shifts during the week and amplified our strategic sourcing capabilities. So those are the things that we have been doing over the past several years to increase the throughput in our existing facilities. But as we look on the horizon and think about 2028 and beyond, we do see a need to add some more physical space for both those businesses and that's what we'll be starting some investments in this year.
Neal Reynolds (Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah, let me just add to that. I think in terms of CapEx for the year we talked, I think back at investor day about 2%. We expanded that to be a bit closer to 2 to 3% of revenue. And this is part of the reason why, because we believe we need to expand capacity in certain areas. I think that also is good to clarify as well. When you think about this organic reinvestment, you certainly don't take that lightly either. Tammy and I have a very, very tightly managed process around how we think about capital across the company. Every dollar of capital incrementally needs to go through a process that Tammy and I review. And, and this clearly is an opportunity for us to invest and create, I think, shareholder value. So all of the capital in the company really competes for the best opportunity. It fits within those areas, whether it be commercial, you know, innovation, velocity or expansion of capacity. And this is one area that we believe is a, is an important value driver for us to grow more revenue for the utilities business. And we believe it has, you know, excellent returns on it as well. Thanks, that's really helpful. And then maybe if you could just update us on the segment top line and margin assumptions embedded in your guide. For the full year. I think last quarter you had applied sensors and safety near the top end of the total company range, test and measurement below the midpoint. It sounds like more of the 2026 raise is test and measurement driven here. So just any updates to that framework? Thanks.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yes, you outlined that correctly. The raise in 2026 is an increase in test and measurement for our 26 guide. Think more to the high single digit for this year and defense and space in the double digit. And the way the backlog is, is building. We see that double digit going forward for defense and space, but that is, that is what drove the race.
Kevin Wilson
Makes sense. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is coming from Piyush Abbasi of Citi. Please go ahead.
Piyush Abbasi
Good morning guys. Morning. One on like diversified electronics within your test and measurement segment, I think you experienced strong year on year growth in 1Q. There are a few end markets within that vertical. So if you could drill down a little bit more, you know the trends you're seeing in autos and consumer electronics and sequentially like should we expect this performance to continue and maybe what's baked into your full year guidance for this vertical?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, Diversified electronics is an area that we watch closely. By the nature of it's about 50% of the overall revenue in test and measurement. And that diversity gives us a lot of durability. You're seeing the end markets, anything connected to AI, that's infrastructure, going into data centers, both semiconductor and electronic subsystems for compute, for memory, for power modules. You're also seeing AI show up in a physical way. The robotics that we have, whether it's at home in our places of work or in our manufacturing facilities, all of those electronics fall into what we think of as our diversified set of our portfolio and a place that's been strong and gives us the confidence and some durability in that business.
Piyush Abbasi
Thanks Tammy. And you guys raised the full year guidance, full year margin guidance to like 19.5 to 20.5 maybe if you can frame for us how you're thinking of margins based on the segments. I think expectations for test and measurement were towards the low end of your mid teens to load double digit range. Now you're kind of expecting high single digit growth. So should we, should we expect margins to be more in line with that long term average and similar question on like sensors and safety? I think you guys were talking about, you know, mid 20s to high 20s there. But one Q was really strong performance. So how should we think of that for the full year?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
I'll give the I'll give the context that we shared at investor day. Rallying Overall Low to Mid 20s Type Adjusted EBITDA margins. Think of test and measurement in the mid to high teens adjusted EBITDA margins and the sensors and safety systems segment in the mid to high 20s type range.
Neal Reynolds (Chief Financial Officer)
If you think about the year, I think that kind of frames it up well. I think as test and measurement starts to improve, I think you can look at margins in that mid teens and low 20s, maybe below the midpoint of that a little bit for the year we'll see how the level of revenue plays out, but clearly within the range. I think as we start to see the year play out from a sensors and safety perspective, I think that mid to high twenties is very reasonable for the year. Could be a little bit lumpy. Quarter to quarter. We had some good defense mix I think in Q1 that might go the other way in Q2, but those are just like I said earlier, a bit of lumpiness. But I think as you look throughout the year with the growth rate that we're seeing, the sustainability we have in that business, the backlog we have in defense, we feel very, very good about the volume leverage we'll get that will eventually translate to kind of those type of ranges of margins for the year. Got it. Appreciate all the color guys and good luck for the remainder of the year. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is coming from Ian Zafrino of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Ian Zafrino
Hi. Thank you very much. On the TNM side, can you maybe give us a little color from a geographic basis? Maybe North America versus China versus Western Europe. And then in semis, what have you done? Lapping the large customer order from last year and how should that grow? Thanks.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah. For tnm, geographically, the strength has been North America and driven again by anything tied to AI. Where we're seeing customer innovation cycles happen really quickly, especially in the move from 400 to 800 volt in the data center, but also the innovation that's happening at the edge and in the power grid where we now have test and measurement solutions for power storage systems. So North America has been strong. In Europe, it's been more defense type test and measurement that we've seen some green shoots there. And then in, in China this past quarter there the government was investing in some energy and AI related initiatives which, which contributed to the. The China piece.
Neal Reynolds (Chief Financial Officer)
Yeah. And just on the, on the semi timing, we think you'll probably see a little bit of headwind on the overall headline number for semis for us, maybe over the next couple of quarters, I think we'd be fully lapped by Q4. Okay.
Ian Zafrino
You know, and then on the sensor of safety, you know, when we look at utilities, when does that sort of start to inflect higher there, you know, and how do we think about orders and then orders translating into growth in that, that area? Thanks.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Utilities have been a strength for us multi quarter, even multi year strength. What you saw this quarter was just a difference between our orders which continued to be strong and robust and some timing on shipments for us so that we expect that to be a 1/4 lumpiness and return as we move forward. Okay, thank you very much.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Joseph Giordano of TD Cowan. Please go ahead.
Chris
Hi, good morning, this is Chris on for Joe. Are you able to give us any more color on the timing and the conversion cadence of the 1 billion space and defense backlog and how you expect that to ramp relative to the current defense revenue profile?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, you can think about that as a multi year backlog extending over the next two to three years. And we, we will continue to get orders that will build upon that as we're also producing those products and shipping them to customers. And within the, within the year we're expecting that business to maintain double digit plus type growth rate both in year and the out years. I also frame that as a business that can be lumpy. I think Neil spoke to that. But it can be lumpy there in a place that certainly our RBS playbook is one that that helps us get after executing against that backlog. Great, thanks.
Chris
And you alluded to this a little bit earlier, but could you update us on your recent product launches and test and measurement and what end markets and applications you're prioritizing and where you're seeing early adoptions and wins with new products?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, in test and measurement is a place, you know, we're focused on what we control and certainly our velocity of new products is an area that we've been focusing on in the most recent years. And the announcements made last year, I think we had six announcements, three were major. New platforms are all getting solid traction as we come into 2026. You can imagine that a sales team with new products to go talk to customers about also drives opportunity across the entire portfolio. So it's certainly elevated our activity and our demand. And a lot of the innovation that's happening right now is really in defense and AI related activity. So any place that people are innovating around electronics and when those customer innovation cycles are accelerated Those are new opportunities for us in test and measurement. So that's the part that we control, that and being close to our customers. And our customers are constantly innovating. And we're spending the time with customers to make sure that we're helping them solve their toughest challenges.
Chris
Thanks very much.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Scott Graham of Seaport Research Partners. Please go ahead.
Scott Graham
Hey, good morning. Congratulations on the quarter. I wanted to ask about tariffs. You have a notation in here that you'd expect to offset them. I was wondering if you could give us sort of what that number, the cost number looks like right now. And when you say you can offset, is that just purely price or do you need some productivity help to offset?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, Terrace is a place that we have. We've had a good track record. If you look back over the last several years, we had a lot of practice, like many in the industry have had, but this is where our RBS playbook really supports it. And it's a combination, you know, we. We're constantly working on a funnel of value engineered products to manage our bill of materials and costs. We're constantly negotiating with suppliers as we increase volume to ensure we're getting best pricing and ensuring we get the value through our pricing methodologies that we get the right value for what we're creating for our customers. And the combination of those things or how we have continued to offset tariffs
Neal Reynolds (Chief Financial Officer)
and just put a number on that. If you look last year, I think we were talking about tariff impact of about 30 to 40 million throughout the year. I think this year, based on some of the countermeasures, kind of 10 you referred to, but also some of the changes in the tariffs, obviously that's closer to about 25 million, we think right now. What looks like in the forecast for 2026 and then stepping back, it is a lot of. There is some pricing in there, but there's a lot of other countermeasures related to supply chain actions, value engineering work that we do to try and offset those things. But it's right within our RBS playbook. And then while we're, while we're talking about it, if you step back, you know, I think Normally we see 1 and a half, 2% of price within a given year. A little bit on the north end of that for 2026 is what we have baked in. And that's just getting ahead of what, you know, those up, you know, where some of that either inflationary, other pressures might hit us. So team, the team's all over this we're leveraging the playbook. There's deep RBs work that's being executed here to offset those and other potential inflationary pressures. Really appreciate that set of responses. And just a quick follow up on the productivity. You know there's a lot of talk about using AI internally to enhance productivity and I know your business system is very exacting on both sales and productivity initiatives. Are you really starting to incorporate AI into your productivity day to day?
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks for asking. Give me an opportunity to share all the work that we're doing around AI right post or following spin. We developed the AI Foundry as part of the Ralliant Business System Office and this is a citizen led AI productivity that we have now. You know after a couple quarters built into it will be a part of the Enterprise Productivity program. And the Enterprise Productivity program gives us the visibility, the program management, the governance and the hard targets. But we still leverage. RBS is how we how we scale this across the enterprise and how we use the toolkit to really see how work gets done so that we can take MUDA and unnecessary steps leveraging AI to drive productivity.
Scott Graham
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. This brings us to the end of the question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Ms. Newcombe for closing comments.
Tammy Newcomb (President and Chief Executive Officer)
Well, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate all of your support and we will continue to execute against our profitable growth strategy to drive both revenue and margin expansion. Thank you.
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