Carrier raises full-year guidance amid surge in orders and strong demand for data centers
Carrier Global, a provider of smart climate and energy solutions, released its second-quarter financial report on Tuesday, showing that the company's revenue and profits exceeded market expectations. Benefiting from a significant increase in orders brought by data center demand, management raised its full-year performance guidance. The financial report showed that Carrier’s net sales in the second quarter were US$6.35 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4%, exceeding analysts’ expectations of US$6.01 billion. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.86, above market expectations of $0.82 to $0.83, but down 7% from $0.92 a year earlier. GAAP earnings per share were $0.60, down from $0.70 a year earlier. Free cash flow in the quarter reached US$810 million, a year-on-year increase of more than 40%. Order performance has become the biggest highlight of this season. Driven by data center demand, total orders in the quarter increased by approximately 40% year-on-year, of which commercial HVAC orders increased by approximately 65%, and data center orders increased by more than 300%. The backlog of orders exceeded US$8 billion, a year-on-year increase of approximately 40%. The company raised its full-year performance guidance for 2026, expecting full-year sales to be approximately US$23 billion, higher than the previous guidance of US$22 billion; adjusted operating profit of approximately US$3.5 billion; and adjusted earnings per share of approximately US$2.90, higher than the previous guidance of US$2.80. Among them, the data center's full-year revenue forecast was raised from US$1.5 billion to approximately US$2 billion. Carrier's chairman and CEO said the company ended the first half of the year with a stronger-than-expected second-quarter performance, thanks to a record backlog of orders and better-than-expected first-half results, and decided to raise its full-year outlook. However, the adjusted operating profit margin in the quarter narrowed to 17.2% from 19.1% in the same period last year, mainly affected by tariffs, product mix changes and input cost pressure.