Tom Okray: As I mentioned in my commentary, I think we’re incrementally more optimistic on China. They came through COVID much quicker than what we anticipated. And the Zero COVID policy went away overnight, it felt like. And we’re starting to see the Chinese government kind of reignite the economy over there. And so I think as the year builds, we think that we — that China, and therefore, Asia continues to strengthen. It has a relatively better second half than the first half. I think Europe is a little bit more difficult of a call to make. Europe, as you noted, has continued to hang in there and be better than what we anticipated for most of 2022. And we’re incrementally, I’d say, sitting here today more positive on 2023. So difficult to really call whether or not we’re going to see a different first half versus the second half in Europe. We’re kind of planning for steady as she goes and more of a balanced view with respect to the year-over-year growth.
Operator: The next question is from Chris Snyder from UBS.
Christopher Snyder: Craig, I wanted to follow up on your comment in the prepared remarks that you would be surprised if the company does not beat the 5% to 8% annual growth targets laid out at the Investor Day. Does this just reflect the fact that the company is running so far ahead of these targets? Or do you think forward growth to continue to top this range through 2025?
Craig Arnold: Yes. I think, one, to your point, we are certainly running ahead. I mean, if you take a look at, assuming the 2023 guidance is a good number, we’ve been running around 10% top line growth against the 5% to 8% target. So well ahead on growth. And quite frankly, we’ve become incrementally more positive on some of these secular growth trends. I think if you take a look at stimulus spending, that number has been topped up since we laid those goals out more than a year ago. I think today, if you think about climate change and some of the investments that are going into grid resiliency — and so as we sit here today, I would tell you that the secular growth trends that we spent a lot of time talking about, we’ve become even incrementally more positive on what the longer-term implications are of these secular growth trends.
Now that may not play out completely between now and 2025. I think there’s going to be some capacity constraints in the industry, and we’re already experiencing some of those. That could be a gating factor. But that just gives us a much longer runway on the back end of this thing in terms of what’s going to happen with these markets over the long term.
Christopher Snyder: Yes. I appreciate that. It certainly feels like it’s showing through with the orders and the pipeline. But then kind of on that, obviously, global orders have decelerated. It sounds like the company is decently optimistic on the rate of change and certainly in China. It sounds like maybe even Europe as well. With that, could we actually see global orders reaccelerate in 2023 just given those two economies maybe starting to move in the right direction?
Craig Arnold: Yes. I mean, I think it’s — when you say reaccelerate. I think it’s a question of relative numbers. We had a very strong year for the most part, a very, very strong first half of the year in our Global business. And we’re still anticipating growth, but we are anticipating the rate of growth will have slowed from what we saw in 2022. A lot of that tied to this assumption around a global recession that could hit Europe perhaps more impactfully than it maybe would in other regions of the world. And so it could — there’s a possibility that we could see a reacceleration. That’s not our base assumption. We assume that we’re going to still see growth but growth at a slower rate.
Tom Okray: Yes. Let me just punch some numbers on Global because we talked a lot about Americas, but just to punch a few numbers. For trailing 12-month orders in our Global segment, we have high double digit in commercial and institution. We’re over 20% in residential, and data centers is doing significantly well. I mean utility is up high single digits. So very strong growth also in Global, not to the extent of Americas but still very sporty.
Operator: And our next question, which is the final one in queue, is from Brett Linzey from Mizuho Americas.
Brett Linzey: I wanted to come back to Electrical. So the incremental margins reported 44% in the fourth quarter. You’re only guiding about 30% for the year. I’m just curious why Q4 would not be more reflective of an undisturbed result with supply chains resolving and price catching up. So curious if there’s something else through the course of ’23 or just conservatism.
Craig Arnold: Yes. I mean that’s the same discussion I’m having with my operating leaders. Why isn’t Q4 44% the new normal? And I’d say that, as you can imagine, in every quarter, there’s always a number of things that can go positively in your direction and things that could go against you. And we just had a very strong quarter of execution and good mix in our Americas business in Q4 that drove those incrementals to be well above where they would normally run. We do think from a planning standpoint, especially given some of the investments that we need to continue to make to support this growth in R&D and an customer capture initiatives, that we think 30% is the right planning number to have. And as you think about the business on a go-forward basis and very much consistent with where we’ve been historically.
Tom Okray: I’ll just end on 30% is good for planning. But we take the coaching, and we don’t want to disappoint the Chairman. So we’ll work hard to beat that.
Brett Linzey: And just one last follow-up. Where are we in this pricing cycle? I mean, is there more to do here? Have you made announcements for this year? And then maybe any context for what you’re embedding for the price component of the 7% to 9% growth this year?
Craig Arnold: Yes. Certainly, price will be a contributor to the growth for 2023. It obviously contributes at a much lower rate than it’s contributed in 2022. And yes, there is some more to do. We are, in fact, expecting to see positive price over the course of the year. We — today, commodities have certainly slowed their rate of ascent. In some cases, we treat it a little bit, but they’re back up again. You see copper is back up again. And the big challenge right now we’re finding is really on the labor front. Labor inflation is certainly coming through the system. And so clearly, we still have work to do on the price front, and it’s baked into the guidance that we laid out, but it will certainly be at a much lower rate than what we experienced over the course of 2022. And most of what you’re seeing in those growth numbers are volume.
Yan Jin: We have reached to the end of our call and do appreciate everybody’s questions. As always, and I will be available to address your follow-up questions. Thank you for joining us today. Have a great day, guys.
Operator: Thank you. And that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T Teleconference Service. You may now disconnect.
