AMETEK posted record second-quarter sales of $1.78 billion (up 2.5%) and record EBITDA of $565 million at 31.8% margins, with EPS up 7% to $1.78 as core margins expanded 90 basis points despite flat organic sales. Growth was led by the Electromechanical Group, where completed destocking in Paragon Medical and automation drove a 17% jump in operating income, while the Electronic Instruments Group's organic sales fell 3% amid project-spending hesitation and semiconductor and research/academia weakness. Management raised full-year sales and earnings guidance to reflect the quarter and the roughly $920 million FARO Technologies acquisition, while noting that U.S. research funding delays are expected to persist at least through the third quarter.

What went well
  • AMETEK delivered record second-quarter sales of $1.78 billion, up 2.5% versus the prior year, alongside record EBITDA of $565 million and EBITDA margins of 31.8%.
  • Core margins were very strong at 26.7%, up 90 basis points year-over-year, driving earnings of $1.78 per diluted share, up 7% versus the prior year.
  • The Electromechanical Group had an excellent quarter with record sales of $618 million (up 6%) and record operating income of $144 million (up 17%), with operating margins up 210 basis points and core margins up 260 basis points.
  • The Paragon Medical business posted robust orders growth (the largest increase in AMETEK by far), strong sales, and EBITDA margins now in line with AMETEK at 30%+, with the destock complete.
  • Aerospace and defense businesses grew overall and organic sales by high single digits, with broad-based growth and commercial OEM strongest, leading management to raise the full-year A&D organic outlook to high single digits.
  • The company closed the FARO Technologies acquisition for approximately $920 million, complementing its metrology and Creaform businesses and adding roughly $340 million in annual sales.
What went wrong
  • Organic sales were flat overall, with the Electronic Instruments Group's organic sales down 3% and process businesses' organic sales down 4%.
  • Trade dynamics and tariff negotiations created uncertainty and hesitation in project spending, leading to delayed shipments and slower customer decision-making.
  • The semiconductor and research/academia markets were headwinds in the quarter, both in the U.S. and globally, with reduced U.S. research academia funding expected to persist at least through Q3.
  • China was down low single digits in the quarter, with tariff-related delays affecting project funding.

Management Commentary

Read the Q2 2025 summary ↗
Kevin Coleman
VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer, AMETEK

Thank you, Tawanda. Good morning and welcome to AMETEK's second quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me today are Dave Zapico, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Dalip Puri, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. During the course of today's call, we will be making forward-looking statements, which are subject to change based on various risk factors and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ significantly from expectations. A detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may affect our future results is contained in AMETEK's filings with the SEC. AMETEK disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Any references made on this call to 2024 or 2025 results will be on an adjusted basis, excluding after-tax acquisition-related intangible amortization and excluding a pre-tax $29.2 million, or $0.10 per diluted share charge in the first quarter of 2024 for integration costs related to the Paragon Medical acquisition. Reconciliations between GAAP and adjusted measures can be found in our press release and on the investor section of our website. We'll begin today's call with prepared remarks, and then we'll open it up for your questions. I'll now turn the meeting over to Dave.

Dave Zapico
Chairman and CEO, AMETEK

Thank you, Kevin, and good morning, everyone. AMETEK delivered strong second-quarter results highlighted by record-level sales and EBITDA, strong core margin expansion, and excellent earnings growth. We also raised our full-year sales and earnings guidance to reflect our second-quarter results and the recent acquisition of FARO Technologies. The addition of FARO Technologies nicely complements our existing metrology and precision measurement businesses. Our ability to deliver strong operating performance is notable given the challenging macro environment and is a testament to the quality of our differentiated businesses, the strength of our operating capabilities, and the contributions from all AMETEK colleagues. Now let me turn to our second-quarter financial results. Sales were a record $1.78 billion, an increase of 2.5% from the second quarter of 2024. Organic sales were flat, acquisitions added 1.5 points, and foreign currency translation was a 1-point benefit.

Book to bill in the quarter was 1.00, and we ended the second quarter with a backlog of $3.47 billion, near record levels. Our operating performance in the quarter was excellent, leading to strong margin expansion and earnings growth. Operating income in the quarter was $462 million, a 3% increase over the second quarter of 2024. Operating margins were 26% in the quarter, up 20 basis points from the prior year. Core margins, excluding the dilutive impact from acquisitions and the impact of foreign currency, were very strong at 26.7%, up 90 basis points versus the prior year. EBITDA in the quarter was a record $565 million, up 4% versus the prior year, with EBITDA margins an impressive 31.8%. This operating performance led to earnings of $1.78 per diluted share, up 7% versus the second quarter of 2024. Now let me provide some additional details at the operating group level.

First, the Electronic Instruments Group. The Electronic Instruments Group delivered solid operating performance in the second quarter. EIG sales were $1.16 billion, up 1% from last year's second quarter. Organic sales were down 3%. Acquisitions added 2 points, and foreign currency was a 1-point tailwind. EIG operating income was $344 million, and operating margins were 29.7%, with core margins a very strong 30.7%, up 40 basis points versus the prior year. The Electromechanical Group had an excellent quarter with strong sales and orders growth, record operating income, and sizable margin expansion in the quarter. EMG's second quarter sales were a record $618 million, up 6% from the prior year. Organic sales were up 5%, and foreign currency was a 1-point tailwind. Additionally, orders were again strong in the quarter with notable order strength within our Paragon and automation businesses.

EMG's operating income in the second quarter was a record $144 million, up 17% compared to the prior year. EMG's operating margins were 23.3%, up 210 basis points from the second quarter of 2024, with core margins up an impressive 260 basis points. Our businesses continue to execute well, delivering strong operating results against the backdrop of a challenging macro environment. Our business model allows us to react quickly to changing economic conditions while ensuring we remain focused on delivering long-term sustainable growth. We're committed to making strategic growth of these investments across our businesses to help support and accelerate progress. For all of 2025, we continue to expect to invest an incremental $85 million in strategic growth initiatives across the company, with these investments focused on research, development, and engineering and sales and marketing.

These efforts and our commitment to innovation ensure a steady stream of new products that support our customers' critical applications and position us for continued success. Our vitality index, which was 26% in the quarter, continues to reflect the success of our technology innovation strategy. I want to take a moment to highlight a recent new product introduction from our SPECTRO Analytical Instruments business. SPECTRO Analytical Instruments is a leading global provider of advanced instrumentation solutions for highly precise and accurate elemental analysis. This new product, the SPECTROGREEN MS, is their latest solution designed for high-performance elemental analysis. It addresses a key challenge in environmental and pharmaceutical laboratories by simplifying the process of analyzing complex samples for trace elements.

The new product incorporates several innovations that improve workflow and efficiency, including its ability to analyze both high concentration and trace elements in a single measurement, significantly reducing analysis time for busy labs. With this new product launch, SPECTRO Analytical continues to advance its technology leadership and provide customers with greater speed, accuracy, and ease of use for their critical applications. This is just one of the many innovative new product introductions across our business. Now switching to capital deployment. As noted, we acquired FARO Technologies subsequent to the end of the second quarter for approximately $920 million. FARO is a leading provider of advanced 3D metrology and digital reality solutions.

Their technology solutions, which include measurement arms, laser scanners, and integrated software platforms, enable customers in end markets including aerospace and defense, public safety, and architecture and engineering to precisely measure and visualize physical environments for a wide range of critical applications. FARO's product suite nicely complements our existing metrology and precision imaging capabilities, particularly within our Creaform business, providing the most comprehensive portfolio of automated 3D metrology, laser projection, and digital reality solutions. This acquisition provides AMETEK with a significant presence in the fast-growing digital reality market and has a strong recurring revenue profile through its service and cloud-based subscriptions. We see significant potential to expand operating margins through integration into AMETEK's global infrastructure and operating model. FARO has annual sales of approximately $340 million. We're very pleased to welcome the FARO team to AMETEK and excited for the future.

Strategic acquisitions are a core component of the AMETEK growth model, and we are committed to deploying our strong cash flow to expand our portfolio in highly attractive market segments. Looking ahead, our acquisition pipeline remains robust, and Dalip will give detail. We have a very strong and flexible balance sheet. We anticipate remaining active in this area. Finally, a comment on the global trade landscape. While the situation remains fluid, our businesses have been proactive in addressing the potential impacts of tariffs. As we highlighted last quarter, we have well-defined mitigation plans that are being executed across the organization. These actions are multifaceted and include targeted pricing initiatives, strategic adjustments to our global supply chains, and leveraging our worldwide manufacturing footprint to localize production. Our teams are also identifying opportunities to utilize our U.S. manufacturing presence to support global customers looking to localize or reshore their supply chains.

AMETEK's diversification across end markets and geographies limits our dependence on any single region, and our decentralized structure allows for the flexibility needed to implement these mitigation actions quickly and effectively. We have a proven playbook for navigating through these uncertain environments, and we are making outstanding progress. Our focus remains on supporting our customers, delivering strong results, and utilizing our strong financial position to invest in our long-term growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions. Now turning to our outlook for the remainder of the year. Given our results in the second quarter and the closing of FARO Technologies, we now expect full-year sales to be up mid-single digits on a percentage basis compared to 2024. Diluted earnings per share for the year are now expected to be in the range of $7.06-$7.20, up 3%-5% versus the prior year.

This is an increase from our previous guidance range of $7.02-$7.18 per diluted share. For the third quarter, we anticipate overall sales to be up mid-single digits with earnings in the range of $1.72-$1.76 per share, up 4%-6% versus the prior year. Our full-year and third-quarter guidance incorporates the expected contributions from the FARO acquisition. In summary, AMETEK delivered strong second-quarter results. Our businesses are well-positioned with differentiated technology solutions serving a diverse set of growing niche markets. We have a durable operating model and an ability to react quickly to changing market dynamics. Our strong cash flows provide us with the opportunity to deploy meaningful capital on strategic acquisitions. AMETEK remains firmly positioned to deliver long-term sustainable growth and strong returns for our shareholders.

I will now turn it over to Dalip Puri, who will cover some of the financial details of the quarter. Then we'll be glad to take your questions. Dalip.

Dalip Puri
EVP and CFO, AMETEK

Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone. As Dave noted, AMETEK had a solid second quarter highlighted by excellent operating performance, robust core margin expansion, and strong earnings growth. Now let me provide some additional financial highlights for the second quarter. Second-quarter general and administrative expenses were $27 million, or 1.5% of sales, in line with last year's second quarter. Second-quarter interest expense was $17 million. Second-quarter other expense was higher by approximately $3 million versus the prior period due to lower pension income and foreign exchange movement. The effective tax rate in the quarter was 19%, in line with the second quarter of 2024. For 2025, we now anticipate our effective tax rate to be between 19% and 19.5%.

As we have stated in the past, actual quarterly tax rates can differ dramatically, either positively or negatively, from this full-year estimated rate. The recently enacted tax reconciliation bill aligns well with our U.S.-based manufacturing footprint and innovation-led growth model. While we are continuing to assess the full implications, we expect it to favorably impact our cash tax position. Capital expenditures in the second quarter were $29 million, and we now expect capital expenditures to be approximately $160 million for the full year, or about 2% of sales. Depreciation and amortization expense in the quarter was $108 million. For the full year, we expect depreciation and amortization to be approximately $425 million, including after-tax acquisition-related intangible amortization of approximately $210 million, or $0.91 per diluted share. Operating working capital in the second quarter was 18.6% of sales, in line with the second quarter of 2024.

Operating cash flow was $359 million in the quarter, and free cash flow was $330 million. Year-to-date free cash flow conversion was 102% of net income. For 2025, we continue to expect strong free cash flow conversion of approximately 115% of net income. Total debt at June 30th was $1.9 billion, down from $2.1 billion at the end of 2024. Offsetting this debt was cash and cash equivalents of $620 million. At the end of the second quarter, our gross debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.85, and our net debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.6. Pro forma for the acquisition of FARO, our gross debt to EBITDA ratio increases modestly from 0.85-1.25. With respect to our recent acquisition of FARO, we will be excluding any one-time acquisition-related costs and restructuring charges from adjusted cash EPS starting in the third quarter.

This approach will also be consistently applied to all future acquisitions, ensuring comparability and clarity in our non-GAAP financial reporting. We continue to have significant financial capacity and flexibility with over $2 billion of cash and available credit facilities to support our growth initiatives and to further deploy our strategic acquisitions. In summary, AMETEK had a solid second quarter, delivering strong results, including robust margin expansion and earnings growth. Our leading positions across attractive market segments, combined with our strong balance sheet and outstanding global operating capabilities, leave us very well positioned to navigate the current environment and deliver on our growth strategies. Kevin.

Kevin Coleman
VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer, AMETEK

Thanks, Dalip. Tawanda, could we please open the lines for questions?

Analyst Q&A

Deane Dray — Analyst, RBC
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good morning, Deane.
Deane Dray — Analyst, RBC
Hey, can we start off with the end market and regional tour? Given all of the fluid trading environment, it's really interesting to get your perspective on kind of the puts and takes. Dave, could you also include the cadence of the months? We've heard reports recently where it was choppy month to month, and I know you've got some perspective there. We heard June was down, but then July came back. I don't know if that was a pattern you saw. A bit to unpack there. Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I'll try to hit all three of those, and I'll start with the tour around the company. Our overall sales for our process businesses were flat year-over-year, as a contribution from recent acquisitions offset a 4% decline in organic sales. The trade dynamics and back-and-forth negotiations continued to create uncertainty and hesitation in project spending. We remain very encouraged by a strong pipeline of underlying project activity across our businesses. Given this, we now expect organic sales for our process businesses to be flat to down low single digits for the full year. Switching to aerospace and defense, our aerospace businesses delivered another very strong quarter, with both overall and organic sales growth increasing high single digits. Growth was broad-based across all subsegments in the quarter. All subsegments underline that, with commercial OEM seeing the strongest growth. For the full year 2025, we now expect organic sales for our aerospace and defense businesses to be up high single digits.
We increased that from mid-single digits, feeling really good about that. Our power businesses. Reported a low single-digit increase in both overall and organic sales for the quarter. Given our strong position serving energy, grid modernization, and electrification applications, we're well-positioned for long-term growth. For the full year, we now expect organic sales for our power and industrial businesses to be up below single digits compared to the prior year. We increased that also from flat. Good strength in our A&D business, good strength in our power and industrial businesses. Finally, our automation and engineered solutions returned to growth this quarter with both overall and organic sales up below single digits. Once again, we saw strong orders growth across our Paragon business and our automation businesses in the quarter. Excited about that. We continue to expect mid-single-digit organic growth for the subsegment. Overall, that's a picture around the horn.
Your second question was related to the trade environment and what's going on there. Our businesses responded quickly and developed tariff response plans to mitigate the impacts. As a reminder, we have a comprehensive plan to go after it. We have select pricing increases, supply chain adjustments, some manufacturing localizations, and some targeted cost reductions. We saw direct benefits from these actions in the second quarter, including pricing, supply chain changes, and some of our localization efforts. We expect to see these benefits throughout the year. It's a testament to our operating capability. We really are managing through it well. I think in our last call, we noted we're confident in our ability to offset these direct costs. Now I just add very confident to it. I think we're in good shape regarding tariffs.
The last question was how are we doing, how did the quarter play out, how did that all play out, and the cadences I think you asked about, Deane. The cadence for June was the strongest month for orders and for the year. Normally, we step through the quarters with the final month of the quarter being highest. That was pretty typical. June was strong. It was the strongest of the quarter, strongest year to date. July is not finished yet, but month-to-date is looking very good. Pretty typical quarter with June being the strongest of the quarter, both sales and order and no slowdown.
Deane Dray — Analyst, RBC
Great. Dave, that was a comprehensive answer to multi-part questions, so I'll leave it there. Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you. Thank you, Dean.
Jeffrey Sprague Analyst — Founder and Managing Partner, Vertical Research
Hey, thanks. Good morning, everyone.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good morning, Jeff.
Jeffrey Sprague Analyst — Founder and Managing Partner, Vertical Research
Dave, congrats on getting—good morning. Congrats on getting FARO done. I wonder if we could just talk about that a little bit more in terms of the integration plan. I believe you see a lot more synergies there than the typical AMETEK playbook, given their margins coming in and the fit with Creaform and other things. Maybe you could just elaborate on what you see on synergies and then really tying it to the 2025 guide also. It doesn't look like really you're expecting much of a benefit in 2025. I know you'll be bedding it down, but if you're excluding restructuring and everything. I would think maybe we do get some contribution in 2025.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah, that's a great question, Jeff. I'll start with—we think it'll be a couple of penny benefits in 2025. We have a partial quarter in Q3 and then Q4. We think we'll pick up a couple of pennies there. When you take a step back and look at the acquisition, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, it's an excellent fit with what we do. We think we can add meaningful value to FARO. They were a public company, so we have the elimination of the public company cost and the integration into AMETEK's global infrastructure. We have a little higher than typical synergies. We have mid-teens cost synergy. If you think about FARO, the last couple of quarters it's been operating at about 15% EBITDA. We think that'll be a 30% EBITDA in about three years. There is significant potential to expand operating margins through integration into the AMETEK infrastructure and operating model.
We're really pleased that we were able to add the highly differentiated adjacent products and technologies to AMETEK's ultra-precision technologies division. The products nicely complement ours. We have a leading market share now, number one or number two, in many key verticals: measurement arms, laser scanners, laser trackers. We now have a new presence in the fast-growing digital reality scanning market. We have an emerging SaaS solution enabling the digital reality capture workflow. They have a good recurring revenue profile for service, about 60% of its hardware, 25% of its service, and 15% of its software. The teams have come in and done a great job. We're working very well together. We're excited about it. When I look at this business, it reminds me a lot of the Zygo acquisition. Very similar in Zygo and FARO in name, but also it went into our UPT division, the same as Zygo.
If you look at Zygo, it was a smaller public company. They were always trying to swing for the fences, hit grand slams because they wanted to get noticed. They took on some things that were outside of their core. You have a very similar situation with FARO. If I look at what we did with Zygo, the sales averaged 9% CAGR over the first 10 years. EBITDA grew over 5x. EBITDA margins increased 2.5x. We reduced working capital by 50% over the first five years. I think we have that kind of potential where there's a lot of talent there. We need to give it some focus. The current management team did a good job, I'll call it cleaning up the business in the last 12 or 18 months. We're extremely excited at what the future brings.
Jeffrey Sprague Analyst — Founder and Managing Partner, Vertical Research
It's a pretty good algorithm if you can pull that off. [crosstalk]. Maybe, absolutely. On Paragon, Dave, if you could. It sounds, as you said, orders firming up. Has that translated to the top line at Paragon yet? How do you see Paragon specifically performing here as we work through the back of the year?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. Paragon had another excellent quarter, Jeff. Orders growth was, again, robust. Sales were strong, and we continued to drive outstanding margin expansion. The orders were the largest increase in AMETEK by far. We also have a situation where the Paragon EBITDA margins are now in line with AMETEK's. There are 30%+ EBITDA margins, and we see meaningful margin runway ahead. Outstanding work by the entire Paragon team. The destock is over, and we are very, very excited about what we're seeing. Very pleased with what's going on there.
They're in a good position with their customers and consumable surgical instruments and implantable components and attractive market segments. We're through the destock. We took some time to do some hard work cleaning up the business. It has excellent engineering capability. They have new program wins. We're really, really pleased with where we're at now.
Jeffrey Sprague Analyst — Founder and Managing Partner, Vertical Research
Great. Thanks for that color. I'll pass the baton to someone else. Good luck out there.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Okay. Thank you, Jeff.
Jamie Cook — Analyst, Truist
Hi. Good morning and nice quarter.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you.
Jamie Cook — Analyst, Truist
I guess two questions, thank you. Two questions. First, David, as I look at your guide, I'm just trying to understand the puts and takes and, I guess, level of conservatism in the guide because you're saying FARO adds a couple of pennies. It sounds like tariffs should be more of a tailwind. Can you help us understand what you're assuming now relative to the $100 million in tariff costs that you talked about last quarter and then the $70 million from China? Is there any change in the core business? I just want to understand the puts and takes of the guide today versus first quarter. My second question is, again, impressed with the EMG margins this quarter, Paragon, you're now saying the margins are in line with AMETEK. The setup for EMG margins as we exit the year, I would assume that would be one of your highest margin improvement segments. The margins in that segment should improve the most. Just trying to understand if I'm thinking about that correctly. Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. I'll start with the margins. I do think you're thinking about it correctly. There's excellent performance in the quarter, up 210 basis points on a reported basis, 260 on a core margin basis. EMG really had a good quarter in margins. In the back half of the year, I think it's going to stay the same way. There's good margin expansion there. Both our EIG and EMG businesses' core margin expanded 90 basis points. The reported margins were up 20, but core was up 90. We had a fantastic quarter. We were excellent at driving the operations of the business. There was excellent productivity. There was positive price cost and really strongly performing acquisitions. When I look at the OpEx, our people are getting it done. We raised our OpEx. We're working through the P&L to $155 million. That's about $25 million from where we started the year and up $5 million from last quarter.
The OpEx side of this thing is working extremely well, and we're pleased with that. Going back to the guide, we beat our earnings. We boosted our guide for the year, and we have a big boat on. We talked about a couple of cents from FARO, and that's all built into the model. I think there's a bit of conservatism in the Q3 guide. As we get through all these changing dynamics, we feel very confident, but there's a bit of conservatism in the near-term guide. I think that. In terms of China, you mentioned the $70 million that we had flagged in the second quarter. We got a good portion of that. Later in the quarter, it opened up. We didn't get it all, but we got a good portion of that.
The $70 million that we identified as a tariff impact that we would offset, we're not going to constantly change with that changing environment. We're not going to constantly update the exposure in real time. We got it. We don't have a problem this year. The $100 million that was a negative headwind is not a negative headwind. That's the best way I can explain it.
Jamie Cook — Analyst, Truist
Thanks so much. Congrats on a nice quarter.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you, Jamie.
Matt Summervile — Analyst, D.A. Davidson
Excuse me. A couple of questions. You talked in detail about Paragon, which was very helpful. Can you go through the same kind of analysis on specifically the automation side of the business, how that business is performing from a profitability standpoint, what you're seeing from an inbound order point of view, where you are with the inventory sort of reductions you were seeing in the channel there? Has that been one of the more challenged businesses for you guys? I have a follow-up. Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. The automation business, it's in the same category as Paragon. The destock's over. We're seeing strong growth in orders. Paragon and the automation business drove the profitability increase in EMG. There's a continued upside there. Both Paragon and automation, the two, the MedTech, which Paragon's in, and automation that dealt with the destock is done. We're feeling good about that. It's driving profit growth. That's why the EMG margins are up 260 basis points on a core basis. Okay? You have a follow-up.[crosstalk]
Matt Summervile — Analyst, D.A. Davidson
Yeah. As you think about those businesses specifically, what do you think the right go-forward organic algorithm looks like for that portion of AMETEK? David, if you can just maybe comment a little more broadly what you're seeing from a go-forward actionability standpoint, M&A-wise, post-FARO, what you're seeing in terms of deal size multiples, etc., that would be helpful. Thank you. Yeah. Okay.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. I think the. EMG business is. The automation and engineered part of EMG is inflecting up. I think it's going to lead us in our next phase of growth. I think we don't. We're saying this year that we'll be up in the single digits. I think that's positive from last year. Obviously, if the order rates continue, there can be some upside there.
In terms of the acquisition pipeline, this year, we got two deals done, deployed $1 billion, and acquired $400 million in revenue. We're excited about these acquisitions. They're high-quality businesses that expand our presence in attractive growth markets. We have a clear path to add value in both the businesses. I talked about the recent acquisition of FARO Technologies in detail. To your question, our pipeline remains strong. We're very actively looking at a number of high-quality deals. As Dalip mentioned, we have $2 billion of existing cash and credit facilities. As always, we're going to remain disciplined, but we did some analysis. If we lever it up to 2.5x, we got about $4.5-$5 billion to spend.
I think that we have the opportunity to differentiate our performance with the M&A element of our growth strategy, combined with our balance sheet and combined with our strong cash flow. We excel at this, especially when markets are choppy. The combination of our operational excellence and M&A, I think we're really focused on the pipeline, and the pipeline is strong.
Matt Summervile — Analyst, D.A. Davidson
Great. Thanks, Dave.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yep. Thank you, Matt.
Chris Snyder — Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Thank you. I wanted to just kind of follow up on some of the commentary on back half growth. It seems like with FARO and some of the prior M&A done, that M&A could be about almost a mid-single-digit tailwind. I would imagine there's some FX tailwinds on top of that, kind of pushing collectively maybe into that mid to high single digit range in the back half. I guess, is that right? What do you guys assume for organic growth into the back half of the year? Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. The one thing, Chris, I talk about FX a little bit. We're going to see for the year a top-line FX tailwind of about one percentage point. We saw that same one percentage point in Q2. On the top line, there's a little bit of a tailwind, but on the bottom line, we're largely naturally hedged. I mean, when the currencies go either way, you never hear us talking about it, and you never hear us as a positive from it, or you never hear a negative from it.
We've run our businesses differently than most, and we have a natural hedge at the bottom line given the general balance of revenues and costs across key currencies. Generally, we don't see a meaningful impact or profit results from FX movements. Now, the FX is, is the dollar has weakened, and we do export quite a bit of high-technology products from the U.S. I think the lower dollar, because we build our higher-technology products, many of them in the U.S., is going to make us more competitive. We understand our competitive positions. We're very well-positioned to deal with currency fluctuations. It's a positive situation. I think organic growth for the year is still plus LSD. We're assuming positive LSD. We're assuming both groups are positive, and then we got the acquisitions that get us to MSD for the year. That's where we are versus our prior guide, and we think that it's reflective of the situation that we're operating in.
Chris Snyder — Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Thank you. I appreciate that. Maybe just following up on FARO, I think the margin opportunity is pretty clear when we see the gross margin that they were running at. If we look at the business, there really hasn't been much, if any, growth over the medium to long term. Could you just maybe talk about how Creaform has grown, just to provide some color on the industry growth there? Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Creaform has grown like a weed. When we acquired it, it was about a $40 million business, and it's grown at double digits since then. The team has done an excellent job, so it's a much, much bigger business than when we acquired it. I made the analogy to our Zygo acquisition because I think it's really key. There's a lot of capability at FARO and a lot of talent, and they were just unfocused. They went down a path and spent a lot of money and didn't get a return for it. We're going to do the same thing we did with Zygo. We get the team together, we're going to focus on their core advantages, we're not going to swing for the fences, we're going to look for incremental wins, and that business is going to grow nicely for us. We have a bottom-line chance to double the EBITDA margins in three years, and at the same time, with the technology and capability in that business, we're going to grow the top line too. We have a good analogy with the Zygo acquisition.
Chris Snyder — Analyst, Morgan Stanley
Thank you, Dave. Appreciate that.
Andrew Obin — Analyst, Bank of America
Hi. Good morning.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good morning, Andrew.
Andrew Obin — Analyst, Bank of America
Just two questions for me, and I'll stick them into one. In terms of China, was there any pull forward of demand on metrology equipment, given that there is still some uncertainty about punitive tariffs in the second half? Just overall, on your organic growth, as, and I apologize, I might have missed some stuff. As you went through the segments and where you were and where you're going, is it fair to say that generally you think short-cycle industrial has bottomed and you've raised your organic growth expectations on the margins going forward? Just want to button up those two issues. Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. In terms of China, the country was down low single digits for us for the quarter. It was down a bit. I don't think there's really a pull ahead there. It's a situation where we're doing some projects, and the projects require funding, and the tariffs have just caused a lot of delays in getting the proper funding. There's still strong demand for our projects, and we got a good portion of the stuff out in the second quarter that we flagged last time. That was a positive. There's still a bit of uncertainty in the market, but we're well-positioned, and our customers are working with us. I wouldn't characterize it as a pull ahead in metrology. No, I don't think we saw that. Your other question was related to.
Andrew Obin — Analyst, Bank of America
Has the cycle bottomed, are you guys feeling better about organic growth?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. I think, yeah. I don't characterize the MedTech market and the automation market as short-cycle. They're more mid-cycle. We are seeing a specific destock end, and we're feeling really good about the orders there. That's true. Yes, I think that where we're at is our strength in our A&D business, broad-based, improved outlook. Our power business is starting to accelerate with grid spending, improved outlook. I think we talked about the automation and engineering solutions, Paragon, strong growth, highest in the company. Also, our automation business now inflecting upward. Our process business, process and analytical, it's definitely not incrementally weakening, but the markets are still sluggish. We have a pipeline of potential orders that's solid. We're beginning to see quotations there related to reshoring, related to new opportunities, related to existing opportunities. That's where the project business is dealing with a bit of uncertainty. We have to work our way through that. In the other three market segments, it feels like we're in a positive situation.
Andrew Obin — Analyst, Bank of America
I'll take it. Thank you so much.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Okay. Thank you, Andrew.
Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Brett Linzey with Mizuho. Your line is open.
Brett Linzey — Analyst, Mizuho
Hey. Good morning, all.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Morning, Brett.
Brett Linzey — Analyst, Mizuho
Hey. Wanted to come back just to the slower decision-making. I guess are customers giving you any sense on the timing of that quotation activity and what the budgeting timeline might look like there? Anything on that front to glean through July in terms of those discussions?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. The timelines, yeah, it's difficult. There are definitely some delayed shipments. I think the certainty around the trade back and forth is important to get it resolved. We're seeing the high number of trade deals get negotiated, get concluded.
That takes the uncertainty off the table to a degree, and we can go forward. I don't think it's the level of the tariffs. It's the uncertainty of the tariffs. I think as we've rapidly gotten some trade deals done, that uncertainty is reducing. As those play through and we understand the impacts of them, I think the uncertainty is going to reduce. In the U.S., we have the overall positive outcomes, as Dalip mentioned, from the tax bill. It helped clarify those go-forward tax rules. The immediate expensing of R&D, the capital equipment for capital equipment purchases, spur customer capital investments. At the same time, we have the tariffs where we have people looking to reshore to the U.S., and we're in a very good position to help them do that. That's a positive. The tariffs have to get settled. As we move through this and more of those get settled, I think the cloud is going to be removed from some of those projects.
Brett Linzey — Analyst, Mizuho
Thanks for that. Just to follow up on the $70 million of the potential at-risk revenue that you had flagged on the last quarter call, I know that's direct U.S. to China instrumentation. Maybe just a finer point on how much of that did ship in 2Q. Are you assuming that the remaining gets delivered as part of the framework, or is there still some contingency there?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I'd say that a good majority of it shipped. There's still some of it that's unresolved, and that'll get resolved in Q3 and Q4.
Brett Linzey — Analyst, Mizuho
Okay. Great. Best of luck.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you.
Christopher Glynn — Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company
Thanks. Good morning.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Hey, Chris.
Christopher Glynn — Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company
Hey, Dave. A question about the pipeline with a little bit more specificity on the air defense market. It's been a while since you did Abaco four years ago. I'm curious about the pipeline there. All the noise around the industry supply chain being tanked up is revealing some properties there that might be opportunistic in that space. How are you thinking about, and also how are you thinking about A&D more fundamentally in the context of all your businesses for long-term M&A?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I think the A&D market is certainly a market we would like to deploy more capital in. We're actively looking at the market. We're actively looking at some deals. From my viewpoint, it's been a great profit generator from AMETEK. We have unique differentiated positions. It's a really good management team that continues to perform, and I love to deploy capital in that area.
Christopher Glynn — Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company
Great. For EMG, your automation is starting to accelerate here, and it sounds like some incremental inflection. With this cyclical momentum there in medical, would you expect more level-loaded first half, second half sales versus usually it's slightly tilted towards the first half on a seasonal basis?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I'd say with the increase in orders, we're going to have a solid second half. There might be a little bit of a different tilt than a typical year. You saw the orders coming in in the first half of the year, and you might have the shipments coming out three to six months later. It might be a little bit different.
Christopher Glynn — Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company
Makes sense. Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thanks, Chris.
Jacob Moore — Equity Research Associate, KeyBanc Capital Markets
Hi. Good morning. This is Jacob Moore on for Steve. Thanks for taking the questions.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Good morning.
Jacob Moore — Equity Research Associate, KeyBanc Capital Markets
Just a two-parter from us as well. Kind of staying on orders and backlog. They look pretty solid this quarter. Can you just help us understand the breakdown of orders and backlog between the segments? Are there any end markets you would call out showing notable strength or weakness in orders? The quick second is related to the tariff situation. Beyond the China metrology, do you think there's any level of pull forward more broadly up to this point? Any perspective you have there would be helpful.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
In terms of the pull forward, we're typically manufacturing customized systems that are higher dollar value. I'm sure there was a little bit of pull forward, but it's not a meaningful, quantifiable number in our respect. We are probably less affected by pull forwards than most companies because of the nature of our product portfolio. In terms of the orders, overall orders, we're up 6% in the quarter. The EMG business was up double digits. EIG was up single digits. In terms of book-to- bill, it was one. EMG was a little above one, and EIG was a little below one. As I mentioned, the cadence of the orders, June was the strongest month of the quarter and also the strongest month of the year.
Jacob Moore — Equity Research Associate, KeyBanc Capital Markets
Got it. Thank you very much.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director, Wolfe Research
Thanks. Good morning, everyone.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Nigel.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director, Wolfe Research
A lot of details already. Dave, thanks for the details by segment. The EIG book-to -bill, I'm just curious, the aerospace and defense businesses within EIG, would they be still above one within that overall?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
They'd be above one, but that's a backlog business, okay? A lot of those orders are booked three, six, nine months, even a year in advance. Yes, they were above one.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director, Wolfe Research
Okay. You called out, obviously, the process and analyticals SBU still, I think you said sluggish. There's been a lot of concern around academic and government funding. Just curious what you're seeing in your Gatan and some of the other businesses that might be affected by those pressures.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
That's a good question. If you just look at our verticals, the MedTech was positive. A&D, as I talked about, was positive. Automation was positive, and food was positive. The two negatives would be the semiconductor market and the research academia market, and it would be in the U.S. and globally. That would be how I would look at it from the verticals. Obviously, our process business plays in a lot of those, but semi and research were headwinds in the quarter.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director, Wolfe Research
Maybe just could you just size that research exposure for AMETEK? Do you view these pressures as temporary, or do you think it could be with us for some time?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. Research market is about 10% of AMETEK. That's a good estimate for size. In the U.S., there is the redefining a little bit of the spend. Without getting into a lot of detail, the spend associated with the projects has been reduced, but they still want to go forward with the projects. There are some delays, and those delays are happening. I think that in the research market, there are some parts of the world where the research market's very strong. About 25%-30% of our research market is in the U.S., the balance of it is internationally. We had a little issue in China there that we talked about, and the smaller part of it's in the U.S. where there is some delay in research academia funding. We're seeing that as a bit of a headwind to our process business. I think that'll be okay. Thanks, Dave. That'll be around for definitely quarter three as we get into the fourth quarter. I'm not sure.
Nigel Coe — Managing Director, Wolfe Research
Makes sense. Thanks, Dave.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah.
Scott Graham — Analyst, Seaport Research Partners
Hey. Good morning. I'm sorry I joined the call late. Dave, did you provide what the pricing was in the quarter? I'll ask maybe what your thinking is for the second half. With that, with tariffs coming down, how did you approach that with customers?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
I'm sure prices announced were a certain level, and then tariffs came down, you might have had to adjust those. Could you just kind of walk us through all that? Yeah. A lot of that's into the detailed discussions in our business units. I'll say that in the quarter, we had positive price-cost spread. We didn't guide to a price exactly, but we had a positive price-cost spread. I think we'll have that for the year. The price increases, I would define them as selective, where we're trying to work with our customers. At the same time, I'm confident that the impacts of tariff and inflation will be offset by price, and it speaks to the results that are related to the highly differentiated nature of the AMETEK product portfolio and our leadership position in niche markets around the globe. That's how I'd characterize it.
Scott Graham — Analyst, Seaport Research Partners
Okay. I appreciate that. Thank you. Maybe flipping to process, which looked like it was softer than perhaps you were thinking internally. That sort of division. Whatever we want to call that, has a lot of different end markets. Could you kind of tell us what the puts and takes were there?
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Yeah. I was going through that a little bit before. There would be positives on the MedTech space. Our Rollins businesses there, they had a really good quarter. Positive in the food business. We have a MOCON business. We have about 3% or 4% of our business is food. That was very positive. The oil and gas market, that was kind of just a nothing really positive, nothing really negative. In the semiconductor and the research markets, those were headwinds. That's how I'd characterize it.
Scott Graham — Analyst, Seaport Research Partners
I appreciate that. Thank you.
Dave Zapico — Chairman and CEO, AMETEK
Thank you. Thank you, Scott.
Kevin Coleman — VP of Investor Relations and Treasurer, AMETEK
Thank you, Tawanda. Thanks, everyone, for joining our call today. As a reminder, a replay of today's webcast can be accessed in the investor section of ametek.com. Have a great day.
Source: AMETEK INC/ earnings call transcript (2025-07-31). Management commentary and analyst Q&A are reproduced as delivered; speaker roles as stated on the call.

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