Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, and welcome to Dover's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Speaking today are Richard J. Tobin, President and Chief Executive Officer; Chris Woenker, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; and Jack Dickens, Vice President of Investor Relations. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference call is being recorded, and your participation implies consent to our recording of this call.

If you do not agree with these terms, please disconnect at this time. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Jack Dickens.

Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Clay. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. An audio version of this call will be available on our website through May 14, and a replay link of the webcast will be archived for 90 days. Our comments today will include forward-looking statements based on current expectations.

Actual results and events could differ from those statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, which are discussed in our SEC filings. We assume no obligation to update are forward-looking statements. With that, I will turn the call over to Rich. .

Thanks, Jack. Good morning, everyone. Let's get started on Slide 3. We're off to a good start in 2026. Revenue grew double digits in the quarter, driven by continued strength in our secular growth exposed end markets acquired company performance and constructive demand conditions across the portfolio. Bookings were a key highlight in the quarter.

First quarter bookings totaled $2.5 billion, up 24% year-over-year. Book-to-bill was healthy at 1.2% in the quarter with each of the 5 segments well above 1, providing improved visibility and confidence in our forecast. Our balance sheet remains strong and continues to provide flexibility for long-term value creation. During the quarter, we continued to return capital to shareholders through opportunistic share repurchases while also investing behind high-return capacity expansions and productivity projects, our acquisition pipeline remains active as industrial M&A begins to pick up.

As always, we will remain disciplined with a focus on maximizing value creation through strong financial returns and strategic fit. All in, adjusted EPS of $2.28 per share was up 11% year-over-year. While we are keeping a keen eye on the geopolitical machinations, and the possible impacts to the macro environment, we believe we are well positioned to drive value creation for our shareholders given the underlying strength of our order books, the flexibility of our business model and the operational execution of our teams and our opportunities for capital deployment. We remain committed to delivering double-digit adjusted EPS growth for the full year consistent with Dover's long-term performance trajectory.

We have chosen to reaffirm full guidance for the year for the time being. But clearly, based on order rates, we are driving to the top end of the range. We will revisit guidance next quarter. Let's go to Slide 5. Engineered Products revenue increased modestly in the quarter supported by strong underlying demand and healthy bookings in aerospace and defense components and industrial winches, along with improving trends in the global vehicle aftermarket business.

Clean Energy and fueling grew 11% organically led by strong shipments in new orders and clean energy components, fluid transport and retail fueling. We continue to see aggressive build-outs from national retailers in North America, which we believe is still in the early innings of a multiyear growth cycle and we are also seeing healthy improvement in Europe as well. Margin performance was driven by volume leverage and operational execution with recent pricing actions expected to further bolster margin performance over the balance of the year. Imaging & Identification delivered stable performance across core marking and coding equipment, consumables and in serialization software.

Segment margins remained strong with some foreign currency translation headwinds in the quarter that should abate as the year progresses. Revenue in Pumps and Process Solutions declined modestly in the quarter as solid performance in artificial intelligence, energy infrastructure components and industrial pumps allowed us to lap a tough comp in biopharma, segment margins expanded on favorable mix and strong productivity execution. Climate and sustainability technologies was a standout during the quarter, delivering 15% organic growth. Heat exchanges performed especially well across all regions, particularly in North America on the growth in liquid cooling applications and data centers.

Food retail also delivered solid top line performance supported by continued double-digit growth in CO2 refrigeration systems together with the recovery in refrigerated door cases and services as forecast. Demand remains strong and the order book supports our confidence in the full year outlook as we are already booking into the second half. Margins were up in the quarter on volume leverage and a higher mix of CO2 systems and heat exchangers. I'll pass it to Chris here.

Thanks, Rich. Good morning, everyone. Let's go to our cash flow statement on Slide 6. Our free cash flow in the quarter was $131 million or 6% of revenue. This was a $22 million increase when compared to the first quarter of last year as cash conversion on higher year-over-year earnings was partially offset by higher capital expenditures tied to growth and productivity investments.

Our full year capital expenditure estimate remains at $190 million to $210 million. Consistent with prior quarters, we expect Q1 to be our lowest cash flow quarter of the year as our operating businesses make investments in inventory ahead of seasonally stronger volume quarters in Q2 and Q3. Our guidance for 2026 free cash flow remains on track at 14% to 16% of revenue. With that, let me turn it back to Rich.

Thanks, Chris. I'm on Slide 7. Bookings momentum continued to build in the first quarter. Bookings are up 12% over the last 12 months, reflecting broad-based acceleration across most end markets. Importantly, Trailing 12-month book-to-bill is now above 1, providing further visibility and confidence in the growth outlook.

The acceleration in bookings and demand is driving longer lead times in certain growth markets. We are seeing the most clearly in programs specific orders for aerospace and defense components and longer cycle components for steam and gas turbines and engines. And in retail refrigeration CO2 systems and in heat exchangers as customers work to secure supply of critical components for fast-growing applications such as liquid cooling applications. Turning to Slide 8. We highlight several key end markets that are material drivers of our revenue growth in 2026 and beyond.

We expect to generate over $1 billion in revenue from applications tied to artificial intelligence and power generation infrastructure this year. In data centers, increasing density of thermal requirements are necessitating a shift towards liquid cooling, which directly benefits our connector and heat exchanger businesses. Our SIKORA acquisitions, which closed in June of 2025, expands our exposure to electricity infrastructure through measurement and inspection control solutions for high-voltage polymer-coated wires and cables a direct beneficiary of growing electrification trends and demand for customers for product quality assurance and improvement.

SIKORA is performing well ahead of its acquisition underwriting case. We are actively working to expand its geographic offering through our global channels and relationships. Natural gas remains the most visible option for scalable, reliable energy to meet the growing demands for electricity. Our Precision Components business provides bearing seals and compressor components for gas and steam turbines, engines and midstream natural gas infrastructure.

Demand for steam and gas turbine components remains robust, a reflection of OEM lead times that now extend multiple years. While we have not seen a corresponding acceleration in midstream investment necessary to transport the gas to those turbines, early customer indications suggest a pickup in shorter cycle orders for midstream compression beginning in the second half of this year into early next year. Our clean energy components business continues to build to see solid growth in valves and vacuum jacketed piping used in LNG liquefication, infrastructure, including export terminals. We are also seeing strong demand in space launch-related applications, which recently booked its single largest order ever for space launch infrastructure where growth rates remain firmly in double digits.

And biopharma customers continue to invest behind new therapies and increasing production rates driving long-term growth for our single-use connector pump and flow meter solutions; and finally, in CO2 refrigeration, we maintain a clear market leadership position in the U.S. supported by fully platformed product portfolio from our retrofitted plants in Condas, Georgia that provides strong competitive moats and product performance lead times and scalability, the shift to natural refrigerants has transitioned from a regulatory mandated demand to performance and productivity driven adoption as early installs have proven that the technology delivers improved operating performance versus legacy technologies.

Despite the strong growth we've experienced, North America remains in its early adoption of natural refrigerants with penetration still below 10%. Let's go to Slide 9. Our organic investments remain our highest priority for capital deployment. Here, we highlight several most meaningful high-return capital projects planned for 2026. We continue to invest where demand visibility and returns are strongest while maintaining discipline around productivity and cost optimization. We also outlined a number of ongoing fixed cost reduction and facility consolidation initiatives.

In aggregate, these actions are expected to generate more than $40 million of rightsizing savings in 2026 with an incremental carryover benefits into 2027. The precise timing of these savings will depend on where able to finalize certain facility moves as we balance site consolidation with underlying demand trends in certain growth markets. Let's go to 10. In Engineered Products, we expect low single-digit organic growth for the year, driven primarily by aerospace and defense, which continues to experience significant demand strength tied to electronic warfare and signal intelligence solutions.

We expect to see further stabilization of vehicle aftermarket businesses supported by recent booking trends. Clean Energy and Fueling is expected to deliver broad-based organic growth across clean energy components, fluid transport and retail fueling and retail fueling domestic demand from national customers remains strong. We believe that this is a multiyear cycle. Our greenfield facility expansion and below-ground retail fueling is expected to support this growth cycle, particularly in our fiber like composite solutions business which is seeing accelerating adoption globally, including increased specification and data center-related infrastructure applications from hyperscalers.

We expect margin improvement in clean energy and fueling for the year on volume leverage, acquisition integration and productivity initiatives and positive price versus cost dynamics. Imaging and ID should deliver low single-digit growth driven by serialization software and marketing and coding hardware and consumables supported by strong order rates. Pumps and Process Solutions should benefit from growth in industrial pumps single-use biopharma components, precision measurement solutions for electrification infrastructure and critical components for steam and gas turbine engines and midstream compression.

We also expect gradual improvement in our core polymer processing equipment is supported by improved quoting activity. Finally, we expect climate and sustainability technologies to deliver double-digit organic growth for 2026 driven by continued strength in CO2 reiteration systems and the anticipated recovery in refrigerated door cases and engineering services were national. Retailers are reengaging in maintenance and replacement activity following a period of tariff-related delays supporting a rebound from historically low volume levels in the previous year. We expect the robust demand across all geographies for brazed plate heat exchanges to continue over the balance of the year with particular strength in North America tied to liquid cooling of data centers and other HVAC applications.

Lead times for large and extra large heat exchanges have extended materially with additional capacity coming online as the year progresses. We have a margin opportunity here from volume leverage and the fact that we are carrying redundant fixed cost in refrigeration as we complete our facility consolidation. Let's go to 11. Full year guidance is on the left. We expect 2026 seasonality to be consistent with recent years.

The operating environment still has a share of macro noise, whether it's politics input costs or policy-related uncertainty. That said, the demand signals we're seeing across the portfolio remain constructive and provide a level of visibility that supports our outlook. We are staying disciplined in our operations in our response to demand conditions. We are investing behind the platforms where returns are most compelling and we have the balance sheet flexibility to opportunistically play offense with capital deployment to create long-term value for our shareholders.

With that, I'll pass it to Q&A. Jack?

[Operator Instructions] We'll move first to Nigel Coe with Wolfe Research.

Thanks quite a -- I think you got through at an hour's worth of prepared remarks about 15 minutes of well done. I think just want to kind of clear up the kind of the obvious question. I mean obviously, the orders -- this is a record order quarter. So just anything unusual supply chain of your concern people are getting ahead of maybe potential concerns around Middle East, et cetera?

And have you seen the strength continue into April?

No, I don't -- we don't see any kind of prebuy. I mean, what we put in the comments about longer lead times is -- what you do see is customers ordering for later delivery periods than normal, just because demand is outstripping supply at the end of the day. So that's really what's driving up especially in brazed plate heat exchangers, CO2 systems and refrigeration cases. And you can see that in the portfolio.

So overall, we don't say -- we don't see anything based on changes in tariffs or anything like that. It's just more the demand is there. And I think there's a recognition that you would need to get in line if you want deliveries because of capacity constraints.

Okay. That's great. And my follow-up on the tariffs. You mentioned tariffs, which a lot of inflation coming through on some of the base metals and steel. Maybe just talk about some of the countermeasures to that? And just maybe just clarify how the different tariff landscape is impacting Dover.

Yes. Well, with the diversification of the portfolio, we've been trying to run down literally tens of thousands of line items of input costs and the like, and I won't bore you with the details other than the fact that it kind of comes out relatively neutral at the end of the day. So everything that we are planning on based on the last round of tariffs. Now with these changes, we kind of go 360 degrees and come out in the same spot at the end of the day.

So there will be pockets where it may be detrimental, and there will be pockets where potentially, it's a strategic advantage because of the fact that we're mostly a build in the region to ship into the region kind of company at the end of the day. So net-net, after thousands of man hours of work it's solved nothing here.

We'll move next to Andrew Obin with Bank of America. .

Maybe a different angle on S232. You are largely domestic manufacturer. Will the change to Section 232 tariffs provide you? Is any competitive advantage versus importers of finished goods?

I hope so. Hard to tell, right? This is all new news. And like we saw the last time a year ago, it takes 4 to 6 months for these changes to work their way through because of the fact that you've got inventory changes and a variety of other things.

I'm not going to talk about where we think we may have a strategic advantage, we'd just rather take advantage of it. But clearly, just like the last time we went through this, having relatively short supply chains has proven to be helpful. .

And I can't resist. I will ask this question. Organic growth, 5%, bookings in the mid-20s and you're guiding 3% to 5% organic growth? The comps don't get tough until Q4. It seems a conservative guide. .

I know. And if you remember, Andrew, we actually got questions about our guide when we initiated our guide. So this is -- and I think -- look, I think if you go back and read the transcript, I was pretty explicit they were driving clearly to the top end of the guide. We're 90 days into this.

Well, what are we now 120 days into it or whatever. If bookings trends remain consistent through Q2, it's clear that we're going to have to revisit top line expectations. .

And booking in April bookings are just for April booking seems to be fine. .

Yes. Yes. So far so.

Thank you. We'll move next to Joe O'Dea with Wells Fargo. .

Rich, maybe just in terms of that comment on Nigel's question around the demand is there. trying to understand the triggers behind the demand being there because it's very broad-based when we look at the order strength. And so what what has shifted from sort of customer sentiment, what you're seeing out there around the confidence to order right now? And it sounds like that has persisted even through the geopolitical situation now. .

Well, look, I mean, when we gave our guidance for the year, we basically targeted both the clean energy and climate segments as the two segments that were going to drive the growth going into 2026 and here we are in Q1. And they are driving the top line growth, and they are the ones that are -- got the best order rates in terms of bookings. So in a way we knew it was coming and there was a reason for it. I mean I don't want to rehash the whole issue of what we went through for a couple of years on underinvestment in both retail fueling and now we're seeing that during the corner and kind of the headwind that we had to overcome last year on refrigeration.

So there's kind of the secular story of the CapEx cycle swinging in those particular markets. The balance of it is generally either acquisitions or the growth platforms, and that is kind of widespread across the portfolio with the exception of DII. So it's a combination of a lot of things, whether it's a secular growth driver and a lot of -- we've been investing pretty heavily in capacity expansions and new product introductions over the last couple of years and knockwood they are gaining some pretty good traction in the marketplace. .

And then just shifting to M&A. Sound pretty constructive on the pipeline. Just I guess, confidence in getting something done this year. it doesn't look like multiples are moving any lower, and you've got a track record of discipline so how you're kind of navigating through that dynamic? .

Yes. Multiples are frustratingly high for sure. But we got a variety of different balls in the air. I would just got to see if we can get them across the finish line or not.

So look, the good news is there's more product available, right, because the fact that equity markets are performing well and multiples paid are pretty high. So that generally is a precursor to product becoming available. That's the good news. Can we find stuff that we like, hope so.

We've got a couple of proprietary things going on. So we'll see. But better than it's been over the last couple of years, just in terms of the total environment.

We'll take our next question from Mike Halloran with Baird.

I'll ask both my questions in 1 shot, because my convention is a little poor. First, you saw the long-cycle orders roll through appropriately. Are you seeing any improvement sequentially as you work through the quarter into April on the short-cycle order side of the things? Did it mirror from a trajectory perspective, at least a long-cycle orders -- and then on the long-cycle orders, maybe just talk to how you think that plays out in terms of conversion to revenue, what it means for sequentials or first half, second half weighting, however you want to put it, as you work through the year?

Okay. The pace of the orders remained relatively consistent from Q4 into Q1. And that's just a broader base comment. Let's not get confused between long-cycle orders and kind of longer-cycle capital goods demand. What we're seeing is a phenomenon that we're getting what would have been reasonably short cycle orders being booked to reserve capacity. .

So it's -- that's why you see the order rates what they are. And if I showed you the expected delivery times, you would see that we're getting orders well into Q2, into Q3 in certain businesses that we wouldn't see that. And that's just because there's a demand supply constraint there. So over time, we would expect those orders to build, which is great.

We have them, and then we kind of -- we'd see them probably normalize as we ramp up production to kind of -- to meet that demand. So the good news is we got the orders and the pace of that rate sustained itself throughout Q1 and has sustained itself through April. So -- but it's not as if in polymer processing and can-making equipment, the stuff that's got really long lead times, those are not what's driving the order rate in the backlog.

We'll move next to Jeff Sprague with Vertical Research. .

Rich, maybe just kind of picking up on that then, the supply constraints that you're talking about are Dover internal, not kind of supply chain inputs. And I guess I sort of get that right? You've been waiting for growth. You probably kept your boot on the throat of some investment here when it wasn't growing. But maybe -- am I right on that? And maybe just a...

It's -- Jeff, it's more of that -- it's not that we haven't had any constraints, right? At the end of the day, when you're booking the way we're booking and trying to ramp and it's cost us quite a few margin dollars in Q1 trying to like ramp up to do everything here. But it's more of like these data center projects. There's -- we operate in some markets with very few competitors, which is the beauty of the business model.

So everybody understands that, so they're ordering advance to reserve the capacity. So it's -- and that's the same thing for a lot of the markets that we participate. And it's not a question of -- we would never ramp the capacity to meet what you see in terms of the orders as if we could get it out in Q1 anyway, right? All we're doing is -- the funnel is the funnel.

We have ramped for sure. But the funnel is the funnel, and we're just working with the customers and saying, look, we're sold out in Q2, you got to start ordering for Q3.

That's what sound like you like you ramped down, and now we're doing a 180 and we're ramping back up. It's just...

No, no, no, no, no. We've never -- look, I mean, we're good at cost management at the end of the day, but it's not like we've taken plants out or anything as part of our consolidation. Those are all efficiency. We've not real fully taken out production capacity in the markets that we wish to participate in over the long term. .

Got it. And then just on the climate-related stuff, then this -- the strength in orders there and on the top line, is that pretty level loaded between the CO2 and the heat exchange or heat pump-related pieces of the portfolio. Could you just elaborate on that a little bit more?

Yes. I mean it's the law small numbers now, right? So you don't want to use percentages because the size of the business is different. But it is broad-based with the exception of Belvac, right?

So the heat exchanger business is growing very well. We're actually back to your capacity question, adding more capacity and heat exchangers? And on the refrigeration side, CO2, we are adding capacity there, right? So we've just been selling a new production line in ones a plant that was empty is now getting close to being full now.

And then on the refrigeration side, I mean, we beat that to debt last year. There was that delay that cost us 2 points of growth. That's all the orders coming through. That's where it's been quite the juggling act of taking leading customer demand almost in an inefficient way, because we're in the midst of a facility consolidation.

We're actually delayed in getting that project done because we had so many orders. We had to keep the plant open and that's cost us margin dollars. We're on path to get that all done probably by midyear. So I would expect the incremental margin in that segment to be robust in H2. We're probably going to have to carry it a little bit through Q2, but then we should see a pretty material inflection in margin performance if we can get this right.

We'll move next to Andy Kaplowitz with Citigroup. .

Which just in DPS, you mentioned you overcame tough comps and pump some process in Q1 and you didn't own biopharma and you didn't change your forecast for the year, but -- are you seeing business gas compression picking up? And obviously, your business is guest turbines from, but what's the outlook for the overall business? I would imagine maybe slightly stronger versus last quarter, but you tell me? .

Well, I mean, I think that we were pretty transparent even in Q1 last year that we had a great Q1 that we -- was going to set this up. We are very pleased actually with the performance of the segment despite that, particularly in terms of the margin performance, right? Because we not only had the tough comp, that's tough comp on the top line, but it's a tough comp in terms of a margin comparison, too. And so not only did we do a great job in MOG in terms of margin preservation despite tough top line conditions across the balance of the portfolio in biopharma and thermal connectors and industrial pumps and precision components, the margin performance has been exemplary.

So I'm always trying to kind of manage expectations about margin performance. I think we actually did better than we would have expected in Q1. For the balance of the year, I think if you go back and look at the comments, yes, we've been doing really well on the turbine side for some time now, and that will continue to do well. What we're really looking for is the inflection on compression. Signs are there, but if there's any upside to the performance of that segment in the second half, it would be in compression, but we'll know when we get the orders, that that's coming. .

That's helpful. And then maybe just on DII, you're still talking about low single digit organic growth and margin expansion for the year. But can you give us more color what happened in Q1, sort of any additional color on that business, I think, would be helpful. .

I mean, I don't think we have a lot of angst about 30 basis points of margin compression. That's a rounding error. It's FX, Andy. I mean we -- you know it's our most global business.

And because of that, it's got a ton of FX running through it. So we're not worried at all. It's not a negative at all, the performance in the quarter. It's going to do it.

This business is going to do what it does every year, right? It's going to deliver single-digit top line growth, very healthy margins and a ton of cash. .

We'll move next to Amit Mehrotra with UBS. .

Rich, I wanted to ask about Engineered Products. It was nice to see that business return to growth and book-to-bill was obviously very strong. I think you guys have a pretty decent defense business inside of there that's I guess, fortunately or really unfortunately quite relevant in today's geopolitical environment. Can you just maybe talk about the growth you're seeing there.

Is it really specific to that business? Or is it more broad-based? And then I guess with the book-to-bill, can we accelerate off of this and do you have enough capacity to kind of meet that opportunity? .

It is driven by the defense business in the segment right now, but that's not to say that the industrial wind side is actually doing quite well. And as we talked about before, on the vehicle service side, the headwind that we saw last year in Europe is abated. So the management team is doing a good job there in terms of margin performance and the like. On the defense side, yes, I mean this goes back to this a long discussion about long lead times and everything else.

We are working like mad to increase production capacity in aerospace and defense to get it done. It's just not something you can kind of throw money at, unfortunately. It in order to do it, it takes a lot of time to do it. So it's doing really well.

And I would expect if we can get a little bit more production capacity online, we're probably going to be able to sell it in as we march through the balance of the year.

Okay. And then just as a follow-up. You had mentioned earlier this net impact of tariffs and I guess, Section 232. But I wanted to just double click on something you mentioned a little bit because I think you do have some competitors in certain specific business lines that do disproportionately manufacture in Mexico. I think they've been historically quite stubborn in cutting prices, but are you seeing any competitive behavior that either gives you an umbrella or an opportunity for share in those markets?

If you can just give a little bit of color on what you're seeing? I know April 6 just happened. So maybe it's too early, but anything you could offer would be helpful. .

History would say that in that particular market that you're referring to is that they will not give up market share and just eat it. The success of our business is more predicated upon the significant investments that we've made in our own production processes that has enabled us to have best-in-class product lead times, meaning that we don't have to go grab market share on price. We can do it on lead times. That's the strategy.

And knockwood what it seems to be working right now. .

We'll take our next question from Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. .

So Rich, I'm wondering like how are you thinking about the TAM for both CO2 systems and liquid cooling? Obviously, CO2 systems still way underpenetrated relative to Europe and just got back from data center world and liquid cooling is growing like wildfire. So I'm just trying to think about like what the opportunity is for you guys. .

Well, we -- I think we can give you a much more intelligent answer about CO2 systems that we're going to be able to give you about liquid cooling because I'll leave it to much larger market participants to try to figure out what that TAM is. But clearly, it's growing. On the CO2 systems side, as we put in the notes, North America is 10% penetrated. So that's basically -- the math there is the installed base has converted 10% of the footprint, which doesn't include kind of growth, but our estimates in retail refrigeration and commercial refrigeration, it's kind of 1 for one.

For every greenfield, there's probably a shutdown. So -- but if we just look at the installed base, we're at 10% penetration. So that gives plenty of opportunity. The base couldn't if it wanted to convert in a short period of time.

So the beauty of it is, if it's -- if we stay in front in terms of product line performance and we stay in front in terms of online capacity that we can kind of just run this run the table a little bit over a multiyear period. Well, at least that's what we're going to try to do. .

Got it. That's helpful. And then just maybe on that point, on the capacity piece. So it seems like you're expecting incremental margins to really to inflect, I guess, maybe in the second half of the year, I guess, in DCST.

I guess I don't know how do we think about that? Like how much capacity you have available? Is it like -- do you think you've got like is it a multiyear capacity? Is it -- do you have enough through the end of next year?

I'm just trying to understand it, because obviously, it has implications for the margin trajectory of those businesses. .

Yes. With the -- if you go to the slide in the deck where we're adding capacity is now is generally speaking for '27 demand at this point. So we're -- when any time we're adding capacity, it's not generally intra-year capacity. I mean sometimes you can do it.

But generally speaking, it's kind of -- the CapEx that we spent 18 months ago is now productive capacity now. So where we're adding is based on an even forecast, 3-year forecast evolving over time. So I think that we've got it right, I guess, is the best way to put it. But back to your question about the TAM about data centers -- if we were to install the capacity of some of the estimates of the TAM, there is never going to be enough capacity in the marketplace.

So we're just going to have to see from what -- our interactions with our customers, we think that we're on the front foot of kind of rolling the capacity rollout based on the demand curve. .

We'll move next to Julian Mitchell with Barclays. .

Maybe, Rich, I know you've touched on this a couple of times, but I think it's sort of worth looking at just, because there's some various cross currents. So you said that the pace of bookings was sort of steady in the last several months, but you had very good bookings growth, which you said is a function not of pre-buy, but customers sort of placing orders with a longer lead time because of supply concerns later in the year. So maybe just to flesh that out a little bit I guess I'm most interested in the point around is that sort of view based on customer conversations that they're not placing the orders ahead of price increases?

And also, your point on the bookings sort of pace being quite steady, you didn't see a spike around when Iran started. Just sort of help us put some of those things together .

Sure. I think for the most part, as a general comment, all of our pricing was done at the beginning of the year. So it was all announced. I mean the argument would have been we drive orders in Q4 because they knew it was coming in Q1, and we've gone past that now.

So there's some exceptions as the vast majority of the pricing is out there now. No, we did not see any kind of spike. Like I said, I mean it's different by business, but kind of the pacing that we saw into Q4 just rolled right through Q1. In particular, in the segments where we thought it was coming anyway, right? And so a lot of that is while that's coming, you're communicating with your customers about, okay, here's where we are in terms of product lead times.

And they're beginning to stretch a little bit just because of the fact that we -- that capacity is being utilized. So I don't foresee. I don't -- it was more of a secular growth in the areas that we had kind of bet on we're going to come anyway just came. Not -- it wasn't like we were surprised at all by any individual business other than, I think, like I mentioned before, the margin performance in DPS despite that having to change a pretty tough headwind there from a mix point of view, I think it was probably the only thing that surprised us.

And I think the other issue is, as I mentioned before, the demand in kind of retail refrigeration was a little bit stronger than we would have expected, and that's necessitated us to keep a plant open longer than we would have liked to. It's great. It drives the revenue, and we'll take it. But weirdly, it's a little bit dilutive in terms of margin conversion because we can't get that fixed cost out.

We'll get it out, but it's probably going to take us a a quarter longer than we would have expected. And that was my comment of if you think about the Climate segment, you've got brave plate heat exchangers, which is very capital intensive. So at a certain point, incremental margin flips over on the depreciation of all the investment, and we see in that growth -- and then once we get those redundant costs out of refrigeration business, we can expect incremental margin there to inflect positively also.

Yes, that was very helpful. And that was sort of where I was going with the second point, which you had, I think, 10% revenue growth all in, in Q1. EBITDA margins company-wide were up basis points, though. You've gone through sort of in DCST maybe why the operating leverage picks up later in the year. I just wondered, across the other segments in aggregate, kind of anything you'd call out that helps the operating leverage improve later in the year? .

I would think the retail fueling business will also inflect sequentially positive throughout the year on volume leverage and on product mix through the year also. We would expect this to be 1 of the lower margin quarters for us, right? Because if you think about the seasonality, if everything goes as planned, you've got volume leverage on that kind of bookings and growth, which we would expect would drive margins higher in that particular segment. I think DPPS if we can stay where we are, I think we'd be pleased.

We'll move next to Patrick Baumann with JPMorgan.

Just -- just had a follow-up on the orders. So generally, looking historically, the first quarter orders convert at a similar level into second quarter sales. So I guess I'm just trying to get a sense on how to think about that $2.5 billion in orders versus the $2.2 billion in sales that consensus has for the second quarter. And it would be helpful if you could, in that vein, maybe quantify what was, I guess, unusually longer-dated orders in magnitude within that $2.5 billion number?

Yes. You can do the math here and take the order rates and stuff it all into Q2 and get a pretty big revenue growth number. And I would advise you, that's why we had all these discussions around here about the machinations of describing longer-dated orders, right, to kind of prevent that at the end of the day. We'll -- seasonality, we will move up in Q2 for sure.

But I don't think we get ahead of our skis here and trying to look at bookings of Q1 and say, well, wait a minute, if it's that much, let's go stuff that into Q2 because I think it's just not realistic from a capacity point of view. So -- we are booking in certain businesses into Q3 now. So that is great for us, but let's not get get overly excited about the revenue growth in Q2. We will get as much as we possibly can get out in Q2. .

Is it like $100 million, $200 million of longer-dated borrowers? Is that .

Patrick, we're not going there. .

In, I would try. My follow-up on price expectations for the year now, based on what you're seeing from a commodities cost inflation perspective, do you still expect to be a kind of 1.5% to 2%? .

Yes. Yes. Right now, I mean, it's a moving target. We'll see what happens with input costs and metals and everything else. But right now, even if we see it, we won't see it in the back half of next year anyway because we've got everything else in inventory. .

Okay. So that guidance is unchanged for price then? .

If you want to give us price guidance, sure. .

And our final question comes from Chris Snyder with Morgan Stanley .

I just kind of wanted to follow up on some of the price commentary. Rich, I thought earlier in the call, you were saying maybe there is more price coming into Q2 to combat the cost inflation. I don't know if that's just maybe the earlier action being realized in Q2. So just kind of I guess, did you guys put more price in place since the start of the year just in response to the cost inflation? .

I'm sure we did anecdotally, but no. I mean, I think all the pricing that we put out started at the beginning of the quarter. .

I appreciate that. And then I guess just on Q2, I don't think anyone has asked it yet. I mean like is the expectation that Q2 is kind of still in this 10% EPS growth mid-single-digit organic growth range .

Okay. I haven't done the math. I know that we're driving towards over 10% EPS growth for the full year. I guess, seasonality says that our profits are generally highest in Q2 and Q3, and I'll leave it to you to do the math. .

That concludes our question-and-answer period and Dover's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. You may now disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day.