Honeywell International Inc. (NASDAQ:HON) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Vimal Kapur: Yeah. Thanks, Andrew. Look, I would say, in AM, the fluorine products business, the [indiscernible] doing extremely well, continues to grow. As applications keeps growing, its geographic spread keeps growing. So that’s very positive. Electronic materials have definitely bottomed out. We have seen signaling of recovery from the [Cree’s] (ph) fab manufacturer. And part of that is seen in Q4. Not as good as we’d like it to see, but we are seeing signals of recovery in the electronics side. And there are parts of chemicals which are weak, which is affected in our overall revenue. And like any other short cycle, we expect it to recover aligned with economic conditions there. But I must say that our conviction in the business is very strong. We had outstanding years in 2021 and 2022. And this year should be seen in comps to the past two years.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Sheila Kahyaoglu of Jefferies.

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Hey, good morning, everyone. Thank you.

Vimal Kapur: Good morning, Sheila.

Sheila Kahyaoglu: Hi. I wanted to ask about Aerospace please, and specifically, defense and space, great growth in the quarter, up 18%. What are you seeing from a bookings perspective there, the sustainability of demand with everything going on? And how does defense factor into Aero margin mix? Thank you.

Vimal Kapur: Thanks, Sheila. I mean the — I think our — one of our — headline of our Q3 has been Aero, and within Aero, the defense and space. Our bookings continue to be strong. Q3 was a strong booking quarter, so was Q2. And that’s driven by not only the U.S. domestic bookings, but also international defense markets opening up. And we clearly see reflecting that in our booking rates. The revenue growth is driven by supply chain actions, which are now being seen in defense also. And we expect the continued growth in the defense segment in quarter four and 2024 ahead, too. So, punchline is that defense is going to become a contributing factor in the continued Aero growth, given the overall geopolitical conditions in the world.

Sean Meakim: Sheila, this is Sean. On Aerospace margins, as it relates to defense and space, it’s not a material drag on our margins. So that growth there is going to be not materially different than the overall margin rate. So, we find that to be — that growth to be quite nice to segment profit growth.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Jeff Sprague of Vertical Research.

Jeff Sprague: Hey, thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Vimal Kapur: Good morning, Jeff.

Jeff Sprague: Good morning. Hey, not to get too tied up in arcane pension accounting, but did you guys change something in pension to mitigate the impact of interest rate changes? Certainly, nice to hear the headwind is that modest, but my rough math would have maybe suggested a bit more. And then, maybe just to add another part. Vimal, you touched on advanced materials a little bit in a previous answer. But can you give us a little bit of color on how you see the 410A, the 454B transition unfolding? What’s happening to 410A prices and availability? And where you stand competitively as these OEMs are making the shift? Thank you.

Greg Lewis: So, maybe I’ll hit the pension one first. So no, Jeff, we haven’t changed anything in our accounting. We’ll do our normal mark-to-market in the fourth quarter as we’ve done for many years now. And again, what I mentioned $50 million to $100 million is a range. We’ll see how the final numbers pan out with discount rates and returns on assets for the asset bases themselves. So, nothing different, and we’ll give you a more precise answer after the turn of the year when we snap the line.