Honeywell (NASDAQ: HON) reported results for the first quarter of 2024 that met or exceeded the company’s guidance on all metrics. The company also reaffirmed its guidance range for full-year sales, segment margins, and adjusted earnings per share and cash flow.

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The company reported first-quarter sales of $9.1 billion, with organic sales up 3% year-over-year, with the Aerospace Technology Group achieving another quarter of strong growth with organic sales growth of 18%. The Energy & Sustainable Technologies Group saw organic sales growth of 5%. In addition, sales in Honeywell’s Enterprise Connectivity portfolio increased by more than 20 percent, led by networking and construction-related products. Operating margin increased 130 basis points to 20.4% and segment margin increased 20 basis points to 22.2%, mainly due to business growth in the Aerospace Technology Group. First-quarter earnings per share were $2.23, up 8 percent, and adjusted earnings per share were $2.25, up 9 percent. Operating cash flow was $400 million and free cash flow was $200 million.

“Honeywell is off to a strong start in 2024, with the commercial aviation business leading overall organic growth with double-digit growth.” Vimal Kapur, Honeywell’s chief executive officer, said: “Our order backlog grew 6% year-over-year and grew sequentially as demand from long-cycle customers continued to be strong. At the end of the quarter, the order backlog reached a record high of $32 billion. In addition, some of our short-cycle businesses have also recovered, and we expect more short-cycle businesses to recover as the channel normalizes further in the remainder of the year. Measures such as improved business mix, continued focus on operational excellence and increased productivity have enabled the company to achieve margins at the upper end of the guidance range and adjusted earnings per share above the upper end of the guidance range.”

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“At the same time, we executed our capital deployment strategy to take full advantage of our strong balance sheet, allocating $1.6 billion to dividends, share repurchases and high-return capital expenditures.” In addition, we announced the proposed acquisition of Civitanavi Systems, which will further strengthen our navigation portfolio in the aerospace sector and expand our European presence.”

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He added: “With this quarter’s momentum, Honeywell is poised for another year of significant transformation, continuing to build on favorable conditions to deliver on 2024 business commitments and accelerate growth.” Our business portfolio resonates with three major trends – automation, future aviation and energy transition – and is underpinned by our strong digital capabilities. Looking ahead, I remain confident in our ability to create value as we continue to execute on our M&A strategy and leverage our differentiated accelerator operating system to unlock the full value of our latest acquisitions as well as our core businesses.”

Based on the company’s first-quarter performance and management’s outlook for the remaining three quarters of the year, Honeywell is maintaining its full-year guidance range for sales, segment margins, adjusted earnings per share and cash flow. Full-year sales are expected to be $38.1 billion to $38.9 billion, organic sales growth of 4% to 6%, and segment margins are expected to increase 30 to 60 basis points to 23.0% to 23.3%. Adjusted earnings per share are expected to be $9.80 to $10.10, an increase of 7% to 10% year-over-year. Operating cash flow is expected to be in the range of $6.7 billion to $7.1 billion, and free cash flow is expected to be in the range of $5.6 billion to $6 billion.