Honeywell (HON) Bows To Elliott, Aerospace Division Separation On The Table

Honeywell International’s management has been on quite a ride since last month after activist investor Elliott Management took a $5 billion stake in the company. The activist investor believes a breakup of the business will help the management run it more efficiently. As a result, the market can easily give it a higher valuation as opposed to the current undervalued state of the struggling conglomerate.

The aerospace division, which brings in 40% of the company’s total revenue, will now be separated from the rest of the business according to the company’s announcement. The separation comes at a time when the aviation industry is recovering from the post-covid slump. Improved management and aviation industry tailwinds are likely to make this move a success. This division boasts Boeing and AirBus as its main customers and could get valued anywhere between $90 to $120 billion including debt. The stock has already gained over 3% today and is up 13.5% since its November lows, signaling improved investor confidence on the back of THE activist takeover.

The move will also help the management focus on the company’s industrial automation segment, which was down 5% YoY in the last quarter and has been struggling. The management plans to reveal more details on this move at the Q4 earnings call.

Elliott Management has received the news well, with its partners confirming earlier today that they were quite happy with the announcement. Honeywell has a strong history of fending off activist investor pressure. Honeywell is one of the last surviving conglomerates in the US and in 2017, it successfully managed to deal with an activist campaign without breaking up the company. This time, however, it seemed the company didn’t want to object. After Elliott Investment announced its stake last month, the company sold its PPE business for $1.3 billion.

HON is not on our latest list of the 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 55 hedge fund portfolios held HON at the end of the third quarter which was 50 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of HON as a leading investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as HON but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: $30 Trillion Opportunity: 15 Best Humanoid Robot Stocks to Buy According to Morgan Stanley and Jim Cramer Says NVIDIA ‘Has Become A Wasteland’.

Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.