On Tuesday, UL Solutions (NYSE:ULS) discussed second-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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Summary
UL Solutions reported a 5.2% increase in consolidated revenue to $816 million for Q2 2026, with organic growth of 6.6%. Adjusted EBITDA rose 11.2% to $219 million, and Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by 140 basis points to 26.8%.
The company highlighted strategic initiatives such as launching an AI-powered capability for carbon footprint calculation, certifying hazardous location robotics, and opening an Automotive Technology and Innovation Center in Japan.
Future outlook remains confident with expectations of mid-single-digit organic revenue growth for 2026, and Adjusted EBITDA margin improvement to approximately 27%, supported by restructuring and disciplined cost management.
Operational highlights included a strong performance in the Industrial and Consumer segments, with revenue growth driven by certification and testing services, and a focus on energy transition and automation trends.
Management emphasized the importance of long-term trends like electrification, automation, and safety science expertise, and noted ongoing productivity improvements and strategic focus on high-growth areas.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Hello and welcome to the UL Solutions second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Currently, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require the operator's assistance during the conference, you may press star then zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Ms. E. Jing Brentano, Vice President of Investor Relations at UL Solutions.
Thank you. You may begin. Ms. Brentano.
E. Jing Brentano, Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you and welcome everyone to our second quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are Jennifer Scanlon, our Chief Executive Officer, and Ryan Robinson, our Chief Financial Officer. During our discussion today we will be referring to our earnings presentation, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at ul.com. Our earnings release is also available on the website. I would like to remind everyone that on today's call we may discuss forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These forward-looking statements may include, among other things, statements about UL Solutions' future financial results and estimates, our full year 2026 outlook, the previously announced restructuring plan, and our pending acquisitions and divestitures, including the pending acquisition of Eurofins' electrical and electronics business and pending sale of our shares of DQS Holding GmbH, that involve substantial risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ in a material way from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements.
Please see the Disclosure statement on Slide 2 of the Earnings Presentation as well as the disclaimers in our earnings release concerning forward-looking statements and the risk factors that are described in our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, except as required by law.
Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures including Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA Margin, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share, Free Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow Margin. A reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP financial measures can be found in the appendix to the earnings presentation, which is posted on the Investor Relations section of our website at ul.com. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us. We achieved another outstanding quarter with record revenue and continued growth in Adjusted EBITDA. Our team executed exceptionally well across all segments, driving profitable growth, expanding margins and advancing key strategic priorities. These results were delivered in a dynamic operating environment and reflect the discipline, resilience and focus that define our organization. Most importantly, this performance is a testament to the dedication and expertise of our approximately 15,000 team members around the world whose contributions drive our success every day.
Our results also reflect the continuing importance of several long-term trends we have discussed, including the energy transition, the electrification of everything and increasing automation in industrial markets. On the consumer side, we see ongoing product innovation and increasingly interconnected devices. These durable trends create ongoing demand for safety science expertise, testing capabilities and certification services that help customers bring increasingly complex products and systems to market.
Before Ryan walks through the detailed financial results, I'll cover four areas. First, highlights of our second quarter performance. Second, notable announcements we made in the last few months. Third, a brief update on previously announced portfolio actions and lastly, some perspective on the geopolitical environment and how our business continues to perform well within it. Let me start with the quarter. Consolidated revenue grew 5.2% to $816 million, including organic revenue growth of 6.6%, led by our industrial and consumer segments.
Adjusted EBITDA grew 11.2% to a quarterly record of $219 million, with Adjusted EBITDA margin expanding 140 basis points to 26.8%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 13.5% to $0.59. These results reflect the combination of operating leverage from organic growth, higher employee productivity and the continued benefit of the restructuring plan we have been executing since late last year. Notably, we achieved 6.6% organic growth even as we absorbed the planned revenue reductions from the business exits under our restructuring plan.
I want to emphasize that our productivity work is not a short-term effort; it is part of how we are building a more focused, scalable and efficient company. We are continuing to simplify how we operate, focus resources on our strongest growth opportunities and maintain disciplined investment in the capabilities that matter most to our customers. It was a strong first half and one we are proud of. Now let me turn to the notable announcements we made during the second quarter.
We launched an AI-powered capability within UL 360 to help organizations calculate carbon footprints of the products they manufacture and the components they purchase. This improves the quality of supplier emissions data used in scope 3 reporting. The launch comes as evolving regulations heighten the need for reliable supply chain carbon data, increasing demand for the solutions our software offers. We issued our first Hazardous Location Robotics certification under the new UL 6260 standard, awarded to Xrobotics for their latest inspection robot.
The certification evaluates remotely operated robots used for inspection and maintenance in hazardous locations, assessing fire, explosion, electric shock and mechanical risks. This milestone supports the industry shift toward robotic inspection in high-risk environments, helping move personnel out of harm's way while improving inspection reliability. We were excited to open our new Automotive Technology and Innovation Center in Toyota City, Japan, further strengthening our ability to support customers in one of the world's largest and most innovative automotive markets.
As vehicles become increasingly electrified, connected and software-driven, the need for advanced EMC testing has continued to increase. The facility helps automakers ensure critical systems operate reliably in the presence of electromagnetic interference. One of the few facilities in Japan equipped for high-voltage and high-speed rotational testing, this new lab expands our capacity to help customers bring safe, reliable technologies to market. Now I'd like to highlight our progress in capital deployment and portfolio optimization.
We continue to expect to close the acquisition of Eurofins' electrical and electronics business in the fourth quarter of 2026 and look forward to welcoming the team and their customers to UL Solutions. We are also proceeding as expected on the sale of our position in DQS, with closing still on track for the second half of 2026. Finally, let me offer some perspective on the geopolitical environment, which continues to present important considerations to our customers.
Our second quarter results show just how well our business continues to perform in this dynamic environment. We continue to benefit from several durable secular trends, more complex product ecosystems and faster innovation cycles. Customers are balancing myriad regulations, sustainability expectations and supply chain transparency requirements. We are also seeing increasing opportunities tied to AI data centers, where safety, energy efficiency and reliability are essential.
The need for safety science expertise backed by independent testing and certification is paramount. That dynamic is core to the UL Solutions value proposition. Our strategy and our portfolio are closely aligned with these trends, and that focus continues to show up in our results. Given our strong performance through the first half of the year, we remain confident in our full year 2026 outlook. Now I'll turn the call over to Ryan for a more detailed review of our second quarter results and more details on our full year 2026 outlook.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you, Jenny, and hello everyone. I also want to thank our team members around the world for another quarter of strong execution. Let me walk through the quarter in detail. Consolidated revenue of $816 million was up 5.2% over the prior year, including organic revenue growth of 6.6%. Operating income of $150 million increased 7.9% over the prior year, producing a 50 basis point improvement in operating margin. This was mainly driven by cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue improving 190 basis points year over year, unfavorable operating leverage and the continued impact of our restructuring and productivity initiatives.
This was partially offset by higher costs associated with performance-based incentive compensation. Selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of revenue increased 130 basis points, primarily reflecting higher employee compensation tied to performance-based incentives as well as higher professional fees. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $219 million, an improvement of 11.2% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 26.8%, up 140 basis points from the second quarter of 2025, with the expansion led by our consumer segment.
Adjusted net income, which excludes the divestiture gain, stock-based compensation expense for equity-settled awards and certain other items, was $129 million, up 17.3% from $110 million in the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.59, up 13.5% from $0.52 in the prior year period. Now let me turn to our performance by segment, starting with Industrial. Revenues in Industrial rose 7.8% to $402 million, or 7.2% organically, as compared to the second quarter of 2025, with growth across ongoing certification services and certification testing.
Strength in materials and energy and automation led the revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA in Industrial increased 7.4% to $130 million in the quarter, while Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased 10 basis points to 32.3%, as the benefit of higher revenue was offset by higher employee compensation costs tied to performance-based incentives. Turning to the consumer segment, revenues were $362 million, up 6.5% from the 2025 quarter, or 6.2% organically, driven by strength in certification testing in consumer technology, non-certification testing and other services in retail, and ongoing certification in appliances and HVAC. As a reminder, the prior-year quarter experienced tariff-related uncertainty, and that affected the timing of customers' new product launches. Adjusted EBITDA for consumer was $77 million, an increase of 24.2% versus the second quarter of last year.
Adjusted EBITDA margin was 21.3%, up 310 basis points year over year, driven by operating leverage, higher employee productivity, favorable business mix as we exited lower-margin service lines, and the continued benefit of our restructuring plan. In our Risk and Compliance segment, revenues were $52 million, a decrease of 17.5% year over year. The decline reflects the divestiture of our EHS software business, which closed on April 1. Excluding that impact, the segment grew 4.8%.
Organic growth in the quarter was driven by increased demand for supply chain insights for the retail industry. Adjusted EBITDA for Risk and Compliance software was $12 million, down 14.3% year over year, primarily due to the EHS software divestiture. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 90 basis points to 23.1%, with the benefit of a leaner cost structure on the segment's smaller revenue base. Turning to cash flow and the balance sheet, for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2026, we generated $678 million of cash from operating activities and $436 million of free cash flow, up 19.8% year over year, with free cash flow margin improving to 13.9% from 12.3%. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, we generated $379 million of operating cash flow and $241 million of free cash flow, both up meaningfully from the prior-year period, reflecting improved business performance. Capital expenditures were $138 million for the first half of 2026, compared to $93 million in the prior-year period, consistent with our plan to continue investing in laboratory capacity to support customer demand. We ended the quarter with $434 million of cash and cash equivalents and total debt of $303 million, down from $494 million at the end of 2025, reflecting $191 million of net repayments on our revolving credit facility funded in part by proceeds from the EHS software divestiture. We continue to maintain a strong investment-grade balance sheet, which provides flexibility to fund the pending Eurofins E acquisition alongside our other capital priorities. We paid a quarterly dividend of 14.5 cents per share, or $29 million, during the second quarter, consistent with the increased dividend we announced at the start of the year. Now turning to our full-year 2026 outlook, we continue to expect 2026 consolidated organic revenue growth to be in the mid-single-digit range as compared to 2025, inclusive of an approximately 1% of revenue reduction from the business exits associated with our previously announced restructuring plan. FX impact on revenue in the second half of 2026 is expected to be negligible. We continue to expect adjusted EBITDA margin improvement to approximately 27% for the full year, consistent with the guidance we raised last quarter, reflecting the combination of continued operating leverage, the benefit of our restructuring plan, and disciplined cost management, partially offset by higher performance-based compensation costs and acquisition-related expenses associated with our announced portfolio transactions.
We continue to expect our full-year effective tax rate to be approximately 26%. We now expect full-year capital expenditures of approximately 8.5% of revenue, including the timing of our previously discussed investments in laboratory capacity and other growth opportunities to meet customer demand. With respect to our restructuring plan, we have incurred the significant majority of the charges associated with the plan and continue to expect the plan to be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2027, with approximately $3 million of remaining pre-tax charges expected over the balance of the plan.
Overall, we are pleased with our first-half performance, and we believe we remain well positioned to achieve our full-year objectives while continuing to invest in long-term growth and executing our portfolio strategy. Now let me turn the call back to Jenny for her closing remarks.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Thanks, Ryan.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
I want to close with one significant highlight from the second quarter. UL Solutions won the prestigious Robert W. Campbell Award from the National Safety Council. It is one of the Council's highest honors for workplace safety leadership, and it's a powerful affirmation of our mission of working for a safer world. The pride that we all feel in this achievement cannot be overstated because the award recognizes something we have long believed and acted upon, that protecting people is and must always be embedded in our culture.
You've heard me say that we do dangerous things here at UL Solutions, all in the name of safety. We break things, we blow them up, we light them on fire. From the way we operate to the solutions we deliver, advancing safety has defined us for more than 130 years. As Lorraine Martin, President and CEO of the National Safety Council, stated, at UL Solutions, safety goes beyond compliance. It is a vital component of both operations and culture. She further noted that the Campbell Award is a recognition of our accomplishment in instilling safety as a value for all employees, making safety personal rather than procedural.
We have been celebrating the Campbell Award globally since May, and I want to once again thank all of our employees who advance our mission of safety every single day. In closing, this was an outstanding quarter that reflects the strength of our business model, the discipline of our team, and continued progress sharpening our portfolio for profitable long-term growth. We remain confident in our ability to navigate a dynamic environment, and the megatrends shaping our industry give us conviction in the opportunity ahead.
We are grateful to our employees around the world for their continued dedication to our mission of working for a safer world, and we remain focused on delivering value for our customers, our people, and our shareholders. With that, we'll open the line for questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate 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 your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions.
Our first question is from Stephanie Moore with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Stephanie Moore, Analyst at Jefferies
Great. Good morning. Thank you. Excellent quarter here. I wanted to touch on margin cadence. So I think you had said previously that margin expansion might be slightly more second-half weighted, but you saw pretty considerable margin expansion in the first half. So I know there's a lot of puts and takes, especially with the restructuring program and the like. So just wanted to think about second-half margin cadence and maybe just your overall level of confidence in the full-year guide after what was a good first half.
Thank you.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Thanks, Stephanie. And we are pleased that our first-half performance really allowed us to sharpen our pencil on our guidance for EBITDA in the second half and resulting in approximately 27.0%. And we will continue the progress that we've made on margin expansion. We're focused on operating leverage, continuous improvement, and disciplined cost management. Brian, do you want to add anything?
Brian Anderson, Vice President Finance, Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC)
I would say we raised the lower end of our guidance last year and we'll continue to assess our outlook as we progress through the year. We're making progress on many near-term items in our portfolio, which include some acquisition costs, and together with other considerations in our business led to the outlook that we provided at this time. So the cadence, I would say, would be pretty similar between third quarter and fourth quarter. And we'll continue to strive to meet the guidance we affirmed today.
Stephanie Moore, Analyst at Jefferies
Thank you. That's helpful. One quick follow-up question that's more of a higher-level question we often get asked in our seats. You know, what ultimately drives the underlying demand for your services? I think you guys do a good job of talking about your megatrends, but one area that I don't think is maybe well understood is any potential volatility that you guys might see in your demand for your services, or quite frankly, lack thereof volatility.
So could you maybe just talk about just the visibility or steadiness in overall services that you see in the given quarter? I think that would be helpful. Thank you.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yeah, I think it's a great point because we really do benefit from tremendous resiliency when you think about us being across 35 different industries and the number of services that we offer. And so one of the things that I always point people to is what has been the trend of R&D investment, you know, in manufacturers. And that trend continues upward and that's important to us because we're not volume driven, we're innovation driven. So the more innovation, the more SKUs that happen, the better our business is.
And, you know, different trends, things like, you know, last fall there was some concerns around chip shortages and other things. And immediately what we ultimately see is our customers redesigning their products and that needs then retesting often of those products. And so, you know, these shifts and changes actually really contribute to our business growth and we're fairly resilient.
Stephanie Moore, Analyst at Jefferies
Thank you guys.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Thank you, Stephanie.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Josh Chan with UBS. Please go ahead.
Josh Chan, Analyst at UBS
Hi, good morning. Jenny, Ryan and E. Jing, thanks for taking my questions. I guess on the margin cadence, you know, given what you've achieved in the first half, it doesn't require that much margin expansion, it seems like, to get to your margin guide. So could you talk about that and whether there are some puts and takes in the margin outlook in the second half?
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you very much. We're pleased with the progress: 140 basis points in the quarter, 220 basis points year to date. And in the second half we're progressing. There are some portfolio management activities, including we expect to close the Eurofins E acquisition in the fourth quarter that will have some integration-related expenses. We expect to have some performance-based compensation expenses based on the improvements that we have made in our profitability.
And I would say those are the primary differences, taken together with all the other aspects of the business, that led us to confirm the outlook.
Josh Chan, Analyst at UBS
Great, thank you for that. And then on the CapEx raise, I think, Ryan, you mentioned there was some timing aspects to it, but it sounded like there might also be some additional growth opportunities. Could you talk about kind of what you're seeing on the horizon to drive the higher CapEx there?
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, thank you for asking. We're excited about the new capabilities and capacity that we're adding, and we're funding this with increases in profitability. Foremost, we support our customers and our markets with innovative ways to test new products. And good examples include the Toyota City, Japan, high-voltage EMC lab that we just opened last month, and also the construction of our large fire lab in Northbrook to support assessing fire risks from new product types.
As you know, we have a history of generating high returns on invested capital and getting better and better utilization of our locations and our equipment. So even with these investments, our free Cash flow and our free cash flow margin has grown. Free cash flow is up 20% on a last 12-month basis and 16% year to date. So said simply, our earnings have grown at a faster pace and more than offset the incremental investment. Some of the projects, some of the large projects span over year-ends and we're pleased that we have made progress and anticipate spending more against some of those projects in 2026 as we progress in those projects. So that led to the change to 8.5%.
UNKNOWN Analyst
Great. Thank you for the color and good luck in the second half.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Thank you very much. Thanks.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Andy Whitman with Robert W. Baird. Please go ahead.
Andy Whitman, Analyst at Robert W. Baird
Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to understand the quarter a little bit better by asking a little bit about your comments on incentive compensation. And so just going through this, I just noticed a couple of things here. So your stock-based compensation was up a lot year over year, $23 million versus $13 million. So that's one form of stock compensation, but that's added back to your adjusted EBITDA. So Ryan, does the increase in incentive compensation move deeper into the organization as a cash cost?
And if you could, just to help us understand the impact to the quarter, could you just quantify how much more of these types of costs that were not excluded were up this year versus last year?
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Andy, it's a great question and one of the things that we're really proud of is our pay-for-performance orientation, both in our annual employee incentive plan and in our multi-year LTIP plan. And that annual—it's an all-employee incentive plan—and so that tends to be more on the cash-based side. And if you go back and look at the proxy last year we outlined some of the details on that. But Brian, you can highlight the puts and takes that Andy asked about.
Brian Anderson, Vice President Finance, Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC)
You're right, Andy. It was really changes in expected payouts in two different incentive programs. One is the annual bonus plan that Jenny mentioned, the all-employee incentive plan that reduced operating income as well as adjusted EBITDA. It's not stock-based so it is not added back. The other are performance stock units that are based on our performance in revenue and operating income and those increased through the year and led to the primary increase in the add back for adjusted EBITDA that you pointed out.
So we're pleased that the performance of our employees is forecasted to earn some additional incentives. And even after accounting for these incentives, our adjusted EBITDA is up 16% in the first half, our operating income is up 16% in the first half, and our total compensation expense in the first half is up only 2.6%. So to put that in context, in the quarter, our revenue is up $40 million, our compensation expense is up $11 million with these incentives, which drives higher revenue per employee, higher profit per employee.
Andy Whitman, Analyst at Robert W. Baird
Okay, that's helpful. Just one more kind of finer point on that one. Was there a catch-up or an accrual that had to make up for maybe under-accrual in the first quarter here, Ryan, or is this the run rate that you expect to, that's embedded in your full-year guidance and therefore implied in the second half?
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, the impact in the second quarter was more than the first quarter and we would anticipate the quarterly impact going forward to be moderately less than the second quarter. So it was a bigger impact in the second quarter.
Andy Whitman, Analyst at Robert W. Baird
Okay, that's helpful. And then, you know, you always get asked the kind of questions on price versus volume contributing to the increased organic growth or accelerating organic growth rate. Thought maybe I'd give you a form to maybe say what you can about that here this quarter, what you realized and what you're seeing in the marketplace today, if anything.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yes, thank you. So with the divestiture, we had total revenue growth of 5.2%. Price and volume were meaningful contributors to our revenue growth, with volume a bit more impact than price. Our certification testing, we're very proud of the progress. It grew over 10% again in the quarter and at that level of growth that was primarily driven by volume.
Andy Whitman, Analyst at Robert W. Baird
Okay, thanks.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Jason Huff with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Keegan Antico, Analyst at Wells Fargo (on for Jason Haas)
Hey, good morning, this is Keegan Antico on for Jason Haas. I was wondering if you could break out some of what you're seeing in consumer a little bit more. You saw some really nice sequential improvement here and year-over-year improvement. If you just unpack that a little bit. Was there anything one-time-ish in the quarter and is this mid-single-digit rate the right run rate going into the second half or could it taper off especially as compares get harder in the fourth quarter.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Thanks, Keegan. And we're really proud of our consumer team and the way in which they're reacting to some pretty healthy market demand and also what we believe are taking share in certain areas. You know, so what we're seeing of course is some demand driven by data centers, particularly in areas of, you know, the power supplies for those AI racks, those AI-powered chips, as well as the servers there. We're also seeing some data center just, you know, overall product certification in both of our business lines strengthening.
But additionally our consumer team, they shed some less profitable revenue through restructuring and they've strengthened technical capability and our lab capabilities around commercial HVAC and continuing to make investments in higher growth areas. So like I say, we're seeing underlying market growth and share gain and that's dropping through to both their growth rate and their EBITDA.
Keegan Antico, Analyst at Wells Fargo (on for Jason Haas)
Awesome. Thanks. And just one quick follow-up. We've seen some headlines from some consumer electronic companies that are delaying new product releases from increasing memory costs stemming from AI. Have you seen this play out at all from any sort of softer volumes or anything like that? Or could it have any impact in the second half or are you not seeing anything from this?
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
It's actually just the opposite because again, I say this all the time as a former manufacturer. When you see factor input costs increase, one of the very first things you do is try to figure out how do you value-engineer that product and redesign it or change your formulations. And that frequently leads to retesting of that product. So for us, we're there with our customers as they're reacting to all sorts of various supply chain shifts and we understand what their new product roadmaps are and that visibility has led us to affirm our guidance for the full year.
Keegan Antico, Analyst at Wells Fargo (on for Jason Haas)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from George Tang with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
George Tang, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
Hi. Thanks. Good morning. Industrial organic revenue growth remains strong at 7% led by materials and energy and automation. Can you unpack what's driving growth within those end markets today and how you're thinking about demand trends through the balance of 2026, particularly around energy infrastructure, electrification, automation and AI-related investments?
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yeah, it's, you know, we always say industrial is just such a great business fueled by the megatrends. And one of the things we're really seeing is strong growth, double-digit growth in data center-related power and automation and wire and cable components and products. So there's a lot of power and controls business. It's being driven by energy needs, not just for data centers, but the fact that more energy needs to be generated, transmitted and stored.
And that's really what our industrial business focuses on. So, you know, we continue to believe that, you know, the strengths that we're seeing in material space, in the energy space and the industrial automation space is really tied to these megatrends and those megatrends are affecting us both across US and Greater China and Asia largely.
George Tang, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
Got it. That's helpful. And then capital spending stepped up this year as you're investing in laboratory capacity. Can you elaborate on where you're adding the capacity today? Which end markets and applications are driving the greatest need for those investments?
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yeah, and you'll recall, George, last year we were on the lower end of our capex range and this year we just raised it to 8.5%. And some of that is timing year on year. But really what we're seeing is given the strength in our business, we can accelerate opportunities around lab modernization and productivity within labs. Labs that are going to provide new revenue generation and also labs that give us some operational resilience to ensure we've got coverage across geographies.
So some of the big labs—we opened our Toyota City, Japan lab which is a high-voltage EMC—that was opened in June. We continue to make progress on our what we call Fire 2.0, our large-scale fire lab here in Northbrook, Illinois. And that's really a long-term asset that will support assessing fire risks from, you know, all types of, you know, larger-scale products. We continue to make investments in EMC around the world as well as energy storage testing around the world.
And we continue to see benefits from our retail centers of excellence in consumer and also our appliances and HVAC testing. So it's across the board and we're being very opportunistic given the benefits that we're seeing from our business growth.
George Tang, Analyst at Goldman Sachs
Very helpful, thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Seth Weber with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Christina, Analyst at BNP Paribas (on for Seth Weber)
Hi, good morning, this is Christina on for Seth. Thanks for taking our questions. So now that this is the first quarter for Risk Compliance and Software that's under the new structure with EHS out and Advisory was fully moved into Industrial last quarter, is what we're seeing this quarter kind of the right base for growth and margin going forward? I remember last quarter it was kind of mentioned that the divested piece was slower growing. So I was curious if this is showing up the way that you guys expected.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yes. And it is. I think the focus of having our ULTRAS platform really strategically connected to, you know, product trust, the product testing, inspection and certification needs that our customers have. Eliminating a lower growth business that really didn't have that connection to the product TIC business. There weren't cross-selling opportunities. There wasn't really a lot of benefit to be on the ULTRAS platform. So the ULTRAS team is really focused.
They're focused on where we've got a networked user model. They're focused on where our customers need product stewardship and product sustainability. And they're focused on where there are regulatory requirements that are rapidly changing. So the 4.8% organic growth that we saw and the progression on EBITDA is good, but we need them to continue to accelerate and those are our expectations with this focus.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
I would just add to that that the software business that we sold, you saw in the second quarter of last year, produced $14 million in revenue. That business had similar revenue per quarter. So you would expect approximately that amount reduced in the coming quarters from what we reported last year and that our margin performance even with the divestiture would be fairly consistent with our full-year margin performance last year.
Christina, Analyst at BNP Paribas (on for Seth Weber)
Got it. Thanks so much.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
On a margin rate, just to be clear, on an adjusted EBITDA margin rate.
Christina, Analyst at BNP Paribas (on for Seth Weber)
Perfect. Thank you. That was all from us. Thanks.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Nicholas with William Blair. Please go ahead.
Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair
Hi, good morning. I wanted to circle back to the capex discussion and appreciate all the color on where you're spending a little bit more dollars this year. Can you maybe speak to it on more of a medium-term basis? Should we expect similar levels of capex intensity in ’27–’28 just based on all the opportunities that you see in front of you, or is this concentrated in kind of this quarter and the back half of 2026?
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yeah, thank you for the question. And as a reminder, last year we did about 6.5% of revenue. This year we've spoken to the outlook of about 8.5% and some of that is timing. Both things that we started last year and finished this year and the timing of things that we started this year progressing very well. I would say it's likely that we're going to be in that range for the foreseeable future for a few years. It is really based on the needs of our customers and the emerging technologies.
As an example, the lab that we just opened in Japan is designed to support new technologies of high RPM and high voltage electrical motors for automobiles. Just a technology that didn't exist previously. So it's really dependent on the needs of the customers and the emerging technologies that need to be tested.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, but Andrew, what I want to emphasize is for us, you know, these are things that we have control over. We can make the decisions around what those CAPEX levels are. Our actual maintenance CAPEX is, you know, low single digits. And so, you know, we don't expect to come off of that long-term guidance that we've given in the past of 6% to 8%. This is just, you know, an anomaly this year and we'll look at next year and give that guidance when we report Q4 and look into 2027.
Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair
Perfect, thank you. And then for my follow-up I wanted to ask on Consumer EBITDA margin. Sounds like some of the benefit on a year-over-year basis is tied to the restructuring and favorable business mix. But I was hoping you could maybe speak a little bit more to the efficiency improvements. And just a point of clarification, is Consumer also going against maybe a more elevated incentive comp number this quarter that we would expect to moderate some, or is that kind of catch-up dynamic specific to Industrial?
Thank you.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, on the second question, Consumer would have a similar dynamic to Industrial as far as performance-based incentive comp. They are performing well this year and, you know, overall as you mentioned, that business mix favorability, you know, shedding lower-growth, lower-margin Consumer businesses and focusing our teams on these new opportunities is important. We are seeing an uptick in ongoing certification in Consumer as well. And so that, you know, that will continue to drive some of their longer-term, you know, margin durability.
Andrew Nicholas, Analyst at William Blair
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Arthur Truso with Citi. Please go ahead.
Arthur Truso, Analyst at Citi
Good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking my question. The first question I had was around the SG&A expenses. So year on year they're up 244 million to 267 million in the quarter. And I think if I remember correctly, about 11 million of that was staff compensation. So I just wonder if you could explain what the rest of it was. Second question. I guess sort of organic growth-wise, on Q2 accelerated in Consumer, decelerated in Industrial. I guess are you expecting comparable trends in both of those divisions as we progress into H2 or is there anything in the comparators that might lead us to a different conclusion for either Q3 or Q4?
Thank you.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yeah, I'll take the second part and then let Ryan take the first on SG&A. But Arthur, we've got nice visibility into end markets and customer demands. And so, you know, we're feeling that the second half of revenue growth will reflect, you know, the trends that we've seen in the first half and then
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
in regard to SG&A. So yes, in the second quarter our SG&A increased $23 million, which is a change from Q1 when SG&A only increased $11 million. The main drivers of the change are the performance-based compensation items we mentioned, which increased $13 million year over year on an organic basis from both the performance share units and the annual all-employee incentive plan. We also disclosed, you can see that our stock-based compensation increased $10 million in the quarter.
And the largest factor in this increase was just based on performance related to our consolidated revenue and our consolidated operating income through the life of the program. In addition to that, there was some growth in services and materials and professional fees, which grew $7 million on an organic basis. This was due in part to the volume of activities and support on outside projects, including M&A.
Arthur Truso, Analyst at Citi
Forgive me for just clarifying, but 10 million of it to do with stock, 13 million for incentives. Is that additive from the, remembers of the 11 million that's compensation? Are they separate?
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
No, that's a part of it. That is a part of it, yeah, that's a subsection of it.
Arthur Truso, Analyst at Citi
But the stock bit 10. The compensation is 11. Is 10 out of the 11 compensation stock or is it separate?
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
It is. So overall our performance-based compensation grew $13 million on an organic basis. And of that, $10 million was stock-based compensation.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
And Arthur, there's some other puts and takes. Our headcount is down. And so there is an overall reduction in salary expense as you look at our employee compensation.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Yeah, and if you're trying to peel apart, like, the underlying expense run rate, we're very pleased with the progress in cost of revenue management, which increased only 1.3% in the quarter. And that is with some costs associated with this all-employee incentive plan.
Arthur Truso, Analyst at Citi
Okay, so essentially of the 23, 13 million was incentives. In total 11 million was compensation and then I guess another 12 million as well in addition. I just wonder what that was.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
So within SG&A overall, professional fees were about $7 million on an organic basis as an increase.
Arthur Truso, Analyst at Citi
Okay, was that related to any sort of M&A or anything like that?
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
M&A was a contributor as well as some of the projects we have underway that led to increases in professional services.
Arthur Truso, Analyst at Citi
That's really helpful. Thank you very much indeed.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Andrew Steinemann with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Andrew Steinemann, Analyst at JP Morgan
Hey Ryan, it's Andrew. Could you just go over that timing of the 1% revenue drag from the previously announced restructured business exit? Is that about a 1% drag to each quarter of '26, first through fourth, and will that be behind the company as we enter '27?
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
It was a bit more in the second quarter than the first quarter. It was about $6 million in the second quarter, about $5 million in the first quarter. So absent that, our organic revenue growth would have been about 80 basis points higher in the quarter. Almost all of it's Consumer, so that would have been about 170 basis points higher. We were winding down some of those businesses in the first quarter and they were done by the end of the first quarter.
So it essentially will be completely done and not comparable by the end of calendar 2026. The second half would be a little more than the first half because of the way that the timing of some of those exits ran through the first quarter and led a little bit into the beginning of the second quarter.
Andrew Steinemann, Analyst at JP Morgan
Okay, thank you.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Thanks, Andrew.
OPERATOR
Our next question comes from Curtis Nagle with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Curtis Nagle, Analyst at Bank of America
Sure. Just a quick one for me. Just maybe the puts and takes — the industrial growth for 2Q, it, you know, decel just a little bit. So the areas of maybe strength versus, you know, if you saw a pullback in particular verticals, but just, you know, disaggregating that, you know, that growth versus, you know, being a little stronger in 1Q on similar comps.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Right. With similar comps, you know, Industrial has seen some real strength in, you know, all of the traditional TIC businesses—built environments, our, you know, power and controls, wire and cable, engineered materials—these advisory business. And again, we've recast, so it's a comparable basis. But our advisory business, which has a significant exposure to solar and wind in the United States, has seen some headwinds. And so outside of our traditional TIC businesses, that's been a bit of a drag on growth.
Curtis Nagle, Analyst at Bank of America
Okay. Presumably that should continue into the second half of the year.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Presumably. Advisory, again, as we've always said, it's more cyclical and can have, you know, a couple projects can swing it one way or another. So, you know, we're expecting that what we're seeing will continue to lead to the guidance that we've affirmed for the full year.
Curtis Nagle, Analyst at Bank of America
Okay, thank you, Jenny.
OPERATOR
Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Shlomo Rosenbaum, Analyst at Stifel
Hi, thank you very much for taking my questions. Hey, Jenny, can you talk a little bit more about the CAPEX increase? I know you talked about some of it is just timing and some of it is acceleration. In particular, can you talk of areas where you've seen the most opportunity and you've decided that it makes sense for you to accelerate some of your investments? Can you just give us a layer down to what some of those things are and where you see that impacting your revenue?
Why is it a good time right now to be accelerating those investments?
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yeah, I think a great example is in our Consumer business, which is where we've got, you know, appliances, HVAC, lighting. And we've been very deliberate in recent years of adding, you know, a new lab in Plano, Texas a few years ago and then rounding out equipment and expansion as we're seeing customer demand. Similarly, over in Milan, Italy, we've done the same and that's really benefited our ability, we believe, to take share in areas that are being driven by AI data centers and the equipment that's needed for the cooling and chilling there.
Similarly, on the Industrial side, we continue to see energy storage systems and the needs not just for battery safety, but also for, you know, quality and performance testing. And that's where in the past we had invested over in Asia as well as in Europe. And we're seeing the benefits of, you know, that capacity increase also allowing us to grow at a rate that we believe is faster than the market. So our teams, I always say there's no shortage of great ideas and great opportunities.
Opportunities. We can be, you know, the accelerator or the governor on the speed of that and feel like right now, given the pace of investments that are going into this new compute environment, this new AI infrastructure, as well as the other megatrends around energy transition and the needs for energy storage, we're going to continue to keep up with it in the right way.
Shlomo Rosenbaum, Analyst at Stifel
Okay, great. Then maybe this is one for Ryan. Just going back to the compensation, incentive compensation. Obviously in a business that's really a people-driven business, it's very important to make sure your people are compensated properly with incentive comp. I want to just ask how that works when we roll forward into 2027. Is that the bar has risen by X amount and now in order for you to have kind of a catch-up again in the middle of the year or something like that, you'd need to have a further outperformance in order for that to end up with something like where you had kind of somewhat of a decline year over year in Industrial?
And maybe you could just talk about that philosophically, about how you guys are approaching that and balancing the need to make sure employees are getting compensated appropriately with the growth with the need to show the margin expansion or the desire to show that in the public markets.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
Yeah, Shlomo, it's a great question and I'll let Ryan go into the details, but it's something that our board, our Human Capital and Compensation Committee, pays close attention to. So we look at what we believe the three-year long-range plan is. As we set the long-term incentive plan, which is around cumulative revenue and operating income, and then annually they set both the targets and the shoulders on the all-employee incentive plan based on adjusted EBITDA and revenue and what we project and forecast our goals for the following year are.
So that's where the puts and takes come from. Ryan can talk about how that plays out next year when we have to lap this year.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
So thank you for the question. So I'll just start with the annual all-employee incentive plan. And I did mention the second quarter was a bit more than the first quarter. So probably to put it in context for the first six months, even with those incremental expenses, our margins are up 220 basis points. So we do strive to seek a balance in that. So if we're recording more expense that will go through the end of the calendar year, it's paid out in the first quarter of next year and on a comparative basis next year. If we are on next year's plan, it likely would be lower than the amount that we recorded this year.
And then on the performance stock units, as Jenny mentioned, those are based on a three-year performance period. They're based on revenue and operating income. So there are targets that are set for those. There's a new series that's issued each year, so they lap over three years. This is our third year as a public company. So one reason why the expense is a bit more is there are three series now as opposed to two series previously. And the performance has been very strong.
So we increase our estimated payouts of that in all of these incentives. If the performance is not there, we will reduce the accrual and the expense. And so it acts as a buffer both ways. It also protects shareholders. If there's underperformance, there's of course lower incentive payments.
UNKNOWN Analyst
Thank you.
Ryan Robinson, Chief Financial Officer
Thank you.
Jennifer Scanlon, President & CEO
All right, thank you everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your continued support and, as always, we look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter.
OPERATOR
This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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