Brady Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 18, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Brady reported a record adjusted EPS of $1.50, up 23% year over year, while organic sales grew 8.2% and gross margin improved to 51.8%.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management said growth was broad-based across regions and product lines, with especially strong momentum in wire and identification and data center-related demand, which continued to be a meaningful driver.
  • Positive Sentiment: The company highlighted strong cash generation, with operating cash flow up 30.7% in the quarter and net cash rising to $148.6 million, supporting dividends, buybacks, and financing flexibility.
  • Positive Sentiment: Brady raised full-year fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $5.20-$5.30 from $4.95-$5.15, while still expecting mid-single-digit organic sales growth for the year.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management reiterated that the planned Honeywell PSS acquisition should close around August 1 and be immediately accretive, estimating about $0.80 of first-year adjusted EPS accretion before synergies. The company emphasized the deal will expand Brady’s addressable market but noted board workload and integration remain significant.
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Earnings Conference Call
Brady Q3 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the call over to Ann Thornton, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the Brady Corporation fiscal 2026 third quarter earnings conference call. The slides for this morning's call are located on our website at www.bradycorp.com/investors. We will begin our prepared remarks on slide number three. Please note that during this call, we may make comments about forward-looking information. Words such as expect, will, may, believe, forecast, and anticipate are just a few examples of words identifying a forward-looking statement. It's important to note that forward-looking information is subject to various risk factors and uncertainties, which could significantly impact expected results. Risk factors were noted in our news release this morning and in Brady's fiscal 2025 Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC in September. Please note that this teleconference is copyrighted by Brady Corporation and may not be rebroadcast without the consent of Brady.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

We will be recording this call and broadcasting it on the Internet. As such, your participation in the Q&A session will constitute your consent to being recorded. I'll now turn the call over to Brady's President and Chief Executive Officer, Russell Shaller. Russell?

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Thanks, Ann, thank you all for joining today. I'm pleased to announce a fantastic quarter. We reported a new record-high adjusted earnings per share of $1.50, an increase of 23% versus the third quarter of last year. Organic sales grew 8.2% and gross profit margin was nearly 52%, while both regions reported significant growth in operating income and profitability. We're growing in our key product lines in both of our regions, and we continue to see positive response to the new products we've introduced over the last several years. Launched in February, our i4311 is a four-inch portable printer which is tailored for plant safety and manufacturing professionals, and it's selling well above expectations. Our development team worked with a wide variety of users to create this product, and customer feedback has been fantastic.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

We're seeing continued growth in wire and identification this quarter, particularly in data centers, which is a key end market for this highly critical identification solution. Our top priorities are profitable sales growth and a constant focus on cash generation, and this quarter absolutely delivered both. In addition to 23% adjusted earnings per share growth in the quarter, our cash generation was nearly $80 million. Operating cash flow is up 35% so far this fiscal year. Last month, we announced that we entered into an agreement to acquire Honeywell's Productivity Solutions and Services business. This marked an exciting moment in Brady's history, and we're looking forward to combining our highly engineered durable labels, printers, and software with the data and devices powering the entire supply chain. This is an exciting moment in our company's history.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Over the past several years, Brady has carefully evaluated the competitive landscape while identifying new growth opportunities to expand our addressable market. With this acquisition, the PSS more than doubles the markets Brady can serve. At the same time, we believe emerging marking and identification standards, including GS1 and Europe's Digital Product Passport initiatives, along with new applications for RFID-based product identification, will support a long runway for future growth. Additionally, our early work with AI-augmented products points the way to exciting new use cases to improve our customer safety and efficiency. We see PSS as a unique opportunity to expand our portfolio into leading-edge mobility and scanning solutions trusted by some of the world's largest transportation, warehousing, and logistics companies.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

By combining Brady's high-performance printers, software, and specialty adhesive materials with PSS's full suite of mobility and scanning solutions, we will be able to offer a single-source solution to a broader set of customers. The PSS business has an incredible product portfolio, a talented R&D team with deep technical expertise, and critical sales and support functions who know their business extremely well. We're looking forward to closing the transaction and to bringing our businesses together. We have a bright future ahead of us, and we know this is an opportunity to drive a significant amount of long-term value for our shareholders. I'll turn the call over to Ann to provide details on our financial results, then I'll return to discuss our regional results and to share some additional thoughts regarding the PSS transaction. Ann?

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

Thanks, Russell. Our record-adjusted earnings per share results this quarter were the result of strong organic sales growth, improved gross profit margin, efficiencies throughout SG&A, and growth in operating income throughout our global businesses. Organic sales grew 8.2%, which was driven by both of our regions. The Americas and Asia grew 10.1%, and Europe and Australia grew 4.5%. We also funded a significant increase in research and development. We reduced our SG&A expense as a percentage of sales, and we increased our net cash position to $148.6 million. Our financial position allows us to continue to invest in our organic business, and it puts us in an incredibly strong position to finance the PSS transaction, all while remaining committed to our dividend and to opportunistic share buybacks. Slide number four details our quarterly sales trends.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

Organic sales grew 8.2% this quarter. Acquisitions added 2.1%, and foreign currency translation increased sales by 3.5% for total sales growth of 13.8% in the quarter. Turning to slide number five, this details our quarterly gross margin trending. Our gross profit margin was 51.8% this quarter compared to 51% in the second quarter of last year. Last year, we took actions to streamline our cost structure, and we closed manufacturing facilities in Beijing, China and in Buffalo, New York. These actions reduced gross profit margin by 30 basis points approximately last year.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

We're seeing the gross profit margin benefit from cost reduction actions taken last year, along with our sales growth led by our highly engineered products, all of which resulted in the 50 basis point improvements in our gross profit margin this quarter. Slide number six details our SG&A expense trending. SG&A was $128.7 million this quarter compared to $108.7 million in the third quarter of last year. As a % of sales, SG&A was 29.6% compared to 28.4% last year.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

If you exclude amortization expense and acquisition-related expenses from the current year and exclude amortization expense and facility closure and other reorganization costs incurred last year, then SG&A was 25.3% of sales, compared to 26.5% of sales last third quarter, which is a reduction of 120 basis points. We continue to invest in growth through targeted additions to our sales force, and we're realizing the benefits of our facility closure and other cost structure actions that we took last year. Turning to slide number seven, you'll find the trending of our investments in research and development. We continue to increase our investment in new product development throughout our key product lines, and we're seeing these multi-year investments paying off in our organic sales growth.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

Printer unit sales are up nearly 8% this quarter compared to last year's third quarter, which is exactly what we're looking for because the consumable revenue will follow. R&D expense was $23.5 million or 5.4% of sales this quarter, which was an increase from $19.2 million or 5% of sales in last year's third quarter. We funded a 23% increase in R&D in the quarter while improving our profitability and reporting record adjusted EPS. Slide number eight details the trending of our pre-tax earnings. Pre-tax earnings on a GAAP basis increased 11.6% from $65.7 million to $73.4 million in the quarter.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

If you exclude amortization and acquisition-related expenses in the current period and exclude amortization and the facility closure and other reorganization charges we incurred last year, pre-tax earnings increased 23.8% from $74.4 million to $92.1 million. Moving to slide number nine, this outlines the trending of our net income and earnings per share. Net income increased 10.6% from $52.3 million to $57.8 million. Adjusted net income increased 22.3% from $58.8 million to $71.9 million. GAAP diluted earnings per share was $1.21 compared to $1.09 last year, and our adjusted GAAP diluted earnings per share was $1.50 compared to $1.22 last year, which was a 23% growth and a new quarterly record.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

Our investments in R&D and in our sales force are paying off. We're growing in all of our major product lines and improving our profitability. Cash generation is detailed on slide number 10. Operating cash flow increased 30.7% to $78.2 million in the quarter from $69.9 million in third quarter of last year. Free cash flow increased 20.8% to $67.2 million this quarter compared to $55.6 million in last year's third quarter. Year to date, our operating cash flow is up nearly 35% versus last year, which shows our consistent focus on cash-based decision-making and our high-quality earnings. Slide number 11 details the impact that our cash generation has had on our balance sheet.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

As of April 30th, we were in a net cash position of $148.6 million, which is more than triple our net cash position from a year ago. We're in an excellent position to finance the acquisition of the PSS business. We plan to structure our financing with $500 million in Term Loan A bank debt and $800 million of private placement debt. Our expectation is that our interest rate will be below 6%. Our net leverage ratio will be approximately 2-2.5x at the time of closing the transaction, and we expect to delever quickly to below 2x within two years of the close.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

Our financial strength and our ability to generate a significant amount of cash allows us to service our debt and delever quickly while always investing in our business through R&D and our sales force. We're focused on consistently increasing our dividends. At the beginning of this fiscal year, we announced our 40th consecutive annual dividend increase, which is a milestone that we're very proud of. Our strong balance sheet also gives us the ability to buy back shares when the opportunity arises. This quarter, we bought 63,000 shares for $5.2 million, which was an average price of $81.59 per share. This fiscal year, we bought 184,000 shares for $14.1 million, which was an average price of $76.76 per share. Slide number 12 details our fiscal 2026 guidance.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

We're raising our full year adjusted EPS guidance range from $4.95-$5.15 per share to $5.20-$5.30 per share. We're raising our GAAP EPS guidance range from $4.62-$4.82 per share to $4.66-$4.76 per share. Our adjusted EPS guidance range represents a range of growth of between 13% to 15.2% compared to 2025. We expect organic sales growth in the mid-single-digit percentages for the full year ending July 31st, 2026. Other elements of our guidance include depreciation and amortization expense of approximately $44 million, capital expenditures of approximately $45 million, and a full-year income tax rate of approximately 21%.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

Our income tax rate generally tends to be slightly lower in the fourth quarter compared to our full year expectation based upon our historical profit mix and the expected timing of other discrete adjustments. Potential risks to our guidance, among others, include potential strengthening of the US dollar, inflationary pressures that we're unable to offset in a timely enough manner or an overall slowdown in economic activity. With that, I'll turn it back over to Russell to cover our regional results and to share additional information about the PSS transaction announcement before Q&A. Russell.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Thanks, Ann. Slide 13 shows the financial results of our Americas and Asia region. Organic sales growth was excellent at 10.1% in the quarter, ending at a record high $290.1 million. Acquisitions added 3.1%, Foreign currency translation increased sales 1.2% for total sales growth of 14.4%. We grew sales in all our key product lines with another fantastic result in Wire ID. Data centers are making a meaningful impact in our growth in this product category this year. Wire ID represents 20% of our revenue in Americas and Asia, and sales were up 19% this quarter. We're also seeing strong sales of our portable benchtop and automated printer units, driving sales growth in Wire ID as well as Product ID and Safety and Facility ID.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Globally, printer sales were up 7.8% in the third quarter. Breaking down the region further, organic sales in Americas grew 9.7%, and organic sales in Asia grew 11.9%. We were pleased to see Americas bounce back after a slower second quarter this year. We finished the quarter with momentum, and we feel positive about a strong finish to the year. Our reported segment profit in the Americas and Asia region increased 20.2% to $68.7 million, and segment profit as a percentage of sales increased from 22.5%-23.7% in the third quarter.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

If you exclude the impact of amortization in both the current quarter and last year's Q3, as well as the facility closure and other reorganization activities from last year, segment profit increased 16.4%, and segment profit as a percentage of sales increased from 24.3%-24.7%. Sales growth in our engineered products, along with cost reduction activities from last year, are driving our improvement in both profit and profitability. Slide 14 details the financial results of our Europe and Australia region. We returned to growth in Europe and Australia with strong sales results in this quarter. In light of the weak manufacturing environment in Europe in particular, it makes our sales results even more impressive.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

I'm happy with the team's ability to navigate the weak macro conditions as well as the conflict in Middle East and still grow sales 4.5% organically in the quarter. Foreign currency increased sales 8.1% for total sales growth of 12.6% to $145.2 million in Q3. We grew in all of our major product lines in Europe and Australia this quarter. Data centers are a key end market in Europe and Australia as well. Wire ID represents 13% of our sales in Europe and Australia, and this product line grew 13% in the quarter. We're monitoring the conflict in the Middle East and modifying our own approach to procurement in targeted areas where it makes sense.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

We also evaluate the buying pattern of our customers and channel partners, and we don't believe there were meaningful changes in the quarter that could indicate sales may have been brought forward due to customers' concerns about supply chain or energy constraints. Segment profit significantly improved again this quarter. Our reported segment profit in Europe and Australia increased 22.8% in the quarter to $21.5 million. Segment profit as a percentage of sales increased from 13.6%-14.8%. If you exclude the impact of amortization in both the current quarter and last year's Q3, as well as the facility closure and other reorganization activities from last year, segment profit increased 15.5% compared to last year.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

We took several actions last year to reduce our cost structure in Europe and Australia, and now we're seeing the benefits in our results this year. We finished the quarter with momentum in Europe and Australia, and we feel positive about finishing the year on a high note. Turning to the future, we're excited about the growth potential from our announced acquisition of Honeywell's Productivity Solutions and Services business. Brady has a strong foundation in identification and safety, and PSS adds a critical third pillar, enterprise-level workforce productivity, to the value we bring our customers today. Today, Brady and PSS represent a meaningful shift in the AIDC competitive landscape, a broader portfolio, a more complete solution set for enterprise customers, and the scale to invest behind a differentiated roadmap. Just as important as the products are the people and partnerships PSS has built.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

The global reseller network and the dedicated enterprise accounts that have built deep, longstanding customer relationships are central to what makes this combination compelling. Our intent is to preserve those relationships and build on them. Customers and channel partners should expect continuity in the teams they work with today, a sustained investment in R&D and in software offerings, including operational intelligence, voice, and the SwiftDecoder that are increasingly embedded in customer workflows and continue commitment to the resilient, vertically integrated supply chain that has long differentiated PSS in the market. We see the combination of Brady's resources and PSS's customer-facing strengths as a clear opportunity to accelerate investment in these areas once the transaction closes. I'd also like to provide some additional background on the recent financial performance of the PSS business, as well as our expectations for the first year post-close.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

The PSS business was operated as a portion of a larger segment within Honeywell. Several years ago, PSS was part of the Safety and Productivity Solutions segment, which is abbreviated SPS. In 2024, the PSS business was moved into Honeywell's new Industrial Automation segment, where it continued to be operated as a portion of a larger business unit. To provide clarity around recent sales results specific to PSS's sales declined slightly by just under 2% in the calendar year 2025 compared to calendar year 2024. In the first quarter of calendar year 2026, PSS's sales grew nearly 5%. Last month, we announced that we expect the PSS business to be immediately accretive. We expect the business will add approximately $0.80 of adjusted EPS accretion in the first year.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

The business is highly complementary to Brady, and we expect it will deliver significant long-term value to our shareholders. With that, I'd like to turn it over for Q&A. Operator, would you please provide instructions to our listeners?

Operator

If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again.

Operator

Our first question comes from Steve Ferazani with Sidoti.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

Morning, Russell. Morning, Ann.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Morning, Steve.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

Obviously, very positively surprised about the organic growth this quarter. I mean, I'm looking back at the numbers. You were under 5% organic growth for it looks like almost 10 straight quarters, under 3% for five. This quarter, over 8%. I know you talked about printers, that was only 8%. The strength here was broader than just the new product development. Can you give us a little bit better sense of what got you here? Also, given that you raised guidance, it had to have slightly surprised you as well.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Yeah. I think a couple things went on. Q2 was definitely a little weaker than we had anticipated, and there were some timing issues of some small contracts. The net result was that a little bit of our growth, not to diminish it, but a little of our growth was fill in, I'm gonna say maybe 1% or 2%, was fill in from what we thought was a slightly weaker Q2 than we expected. Now with that said, you know, clearly Q3 came in very strong. Data centers, you know, if you do the math, it's 20% of our business, and it grew at almost 20%. If you do the math, that was a 4% uplift in the Americas and Asia, and then less in Europe.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

If you take those into account and you take the, what we felt was just generally strong environment for Brady's products, you get to the organic results that we posted, which again, we're hoping continue through the rest of the fiscal year.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

How much of a difference maker is the i4311? Is that a share taker?

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

I wouldn't even say it's a share taker. It's literally new to the world. There is no equivalent product to a portable four-inch printer. We're up 50% over what we normally expect for a printer launch, which is both surprising and we think, quite frankly, awesome because we're very good traditionally at predicting printer placements because we've been doing this for a very long time.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

You know, again, I wanna remind everybody that no one product in Brady is super significant, but they also create, and I think this new printer also creates a little bit of a halo where it's pulling along other products as well, because it is truly unique out in the industry of being able to go to a location without having to go back to a printer station and still be able to print, you know, a four-inch, which is comparatively large format, thermal transfer product. We're excited about the product. We're excited about what's happened so far. Is that meaningful to our growth? Not really. Will it be? We think so.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

Got it. Very helpful. Russell, I think, make sure I heard you right. You said, in year one, the acquisition would add $0.80 to adjusted EPS. I think you had said double digits before.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Correct. Correct. It's, you know, as time goes on, of course, we're gonna hone into exact answers.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

Right.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

You know, we're still in the integration phase and understanding the complete cost structures and the add backs and what have you. You know, directionally, we feel comfortable with $0.80. Is that going to move up a little or move down a little bit as we get closer to close? Certainly. Then we'll continue to unpack more detailed numbers as we get to the next quarter.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

Is the expectation that there's some synergy realization with that, or is that without synergies?

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

That first quarter, or excuse me, that first year is no synergies.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

Wow, okay. Timing on the deal, any change?

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

August first is our best estimate, you know, pending regulatory filings and some other things. If we miss the August first date, it will likely be due to external factors, not Honeywell or Brady.

Steve Ferazani
Steve Ferazani
Analyst at Sidoti

Got it. Thanks, Russell.

Operator

Our next question comes from Keith Housum with Northcoast Research.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

Good morning, guys. I want to echo congratulations on a great quarter. Great to see. You know Russell, in terms of the data center business, obviously a driver of your business 3%-4% overall. Do you guys have any increased visibility there? Obviously, we all see the same headlines, data centers are expected to grow some incredible amounts over the next several years, you know, even more than what we've seen. Any visibility that you guys have that you guys will be partaking in that as well? It's been several quarters now that we've seen this as a growth driver for you guys.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Yeah. You know, so far the data centers are keeping pace. You know, we neither see an acceleration from the current trend or a deceleration. The backlog in data centers from our perspective, the physical building of data centers seems to be at a virtual capacity limit. While there's announced data centers, and there's a huge one just up the road from the Brady plant, in the end, there is some limit to how fast the infrastructure can be put in place, which frankly, we see as a good thing because that ensures that we'll see a tailwind for this product category for several years as opposed to, I'll say, a data center sugar high, which I'm hoping turns out not to be true.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

Yeah. When in the process of the data center being built are you guys, your products being used? Is it toward the completion of the data center? Is it earlier? Maybe any context you can provide there.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Yeah. I'm gonna say it's kind of all along the way, depending on how the data center itself is put together. In some cases, there's a lot of pre-wiring that happens before the data center is actually fully built. In that case, you know, we would be a little bit earlier, and then sometimes it's on premises, you know. Even from the very beginning, once they break ground, you know, there are Brady products showing up in safety and facility all the way through to full commissioning. You know, the biggest part tends to be when they install the racks themselves, and they're doing that wiring between them. That's where we would see the single biggest slug of work.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

From Brady's perspective, we like it all along the way because until the plant's fully operational, we're seeing revenue from groundbreaking all the way through. At some point, you know, we believe in the three-year to potentially four-year timeframe, you know, they'll do block upgrades of the data centers to get them to the next generation, and then we'll see a recurring revenue when that happens as well. Fundamentally, we just see this as an awesome opportunity for the company and being able to identify products within data centers.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

Last question on data centers for me. Who's the buyer of this? Is it the builder of the data center themselves? Is it the server companies? Who's the buyer?

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

I would say, depending on the regional location, a whole host of people have their fingers in it. Sometimes it is the cable manufacturers themselves. Sometimes it is the data center integrator. Sometimes it is the on-prem data center, I'm gonna say hooker upper, which is not really a scientific term. I'm gonna say there is it depends. We've seen just so many permutations. As you can imagine, this whole field has exploded so quickly, there isn't necessarily a single optimal way of doing anything. A lot of people have sprung up different points in the value chain, and we're selling it to a variety of different people depending on, you know, whose it is, whether it's AWS or somebody else, data center.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

They all tend to do this a little bit differently.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

Okay. I appreciate that. Gross margins, you know, benefiting obviously from data centers, but it sounds like also with the printer growth there, you're gonna be benefiting from consumables. You know, great number this quarter, the 51.8%. As we kind of think about going forward, how are you thinking about gross margins? Is 50% no longer the floor? Are we thinking maybe 51%, 52% is, you know, possible here as we look forward?

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Yeah. We, you know, just to remind everyone, we never target gross margin. We target area under the curve because, you know, in some of our product categories, we could clearly push up pricing, and we could get even much higher gross margin than we stand right now. We know that would come at the point of demand destruction. 'Cause a lot of our products are used as a labor savings or as a way to do something different or more professional than, say, picking up a Sharpie. We're always very careful to look at the market and look at market uptake. Our goal is long-term growth and product placement as opposed to, you know, say pushing margins to 52% or 53%.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

You know, I think given our mix today and the tariff regime as it exists today, 52% is a good place for us. You don't know where tariffs are going, and, you know, mix could go slightly one way or another. I do think it's important to realize our number one goal is long-term profitable growth, not hitting some particular profit margin I mean, excuse me, gross margin.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

I appreciate that. Thank you. In terms of the $0.80 number that you gave for the Honeywell PSS acquisition the first full year, what is included in that context? I mean, I've been of the opinion that they've underinvested R&D and sales and marketing over the years. You're obviously closer to the number than I am. Perhaps can you Any thoughts on what that includes in terms of any additional investment above what they were doing?

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

I'll give a little bit, and then I'll turn it over to Ann to give you a better unpacking of the number. They have actually, in the last couple of years, rebuilt much of their R&D infrastructure. I would say that 2022, 2023 marked a low point of R&D investment for the PSS business. Fortunately, even they realized that they needed to add back R&D, most of which has happened. I think at the margins, we know there's some things that we can do. You know, at this point, it's not a significant build back. Will we add another $5 million, potentially $10 million in R&D? I think that is possible. Will we add some to the sales force? Absolutely. Some of their customer-facing supply chain? Absolutely.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Is it, I would say, is it really significant in the scheme of things? No. The business is You know, I think there are things we can do to kind of nip and tuck. As I told everybody, it's a fantastic business with a fantastic portfolio, and I think it's got a great home in Brady. I'll let Ann talk about some of the details.

Ann Thornton
Ann Thornton
CFO at Brady Corporation

That's perfect. Keith, in addition to those items that Russell mentioned, that yes, this does include some bit of potential additional investment in R&D and in the sales force. What our estimate that we provided of if $0.80 of adjusted EPS would exclude would be any truly one-time integration costs related to, you know, truly integrating the business, standing it up, and all of that. That would also include our expectations for interest expense, which we provided a little bit of clarity around what how we're expecting that to shape up. We'll provide full clarity. We'll disclose that. You know, post-close, we'll provide the visibility into the, those puts and takes.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

Okay. Appreciate it. I guess last question from me, guys. You know, I don't usually ask questions on board resignations because I usually don't think much about them.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

You should.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

Well, timing here, obviously the stock being down last week. You know, you had two board members resign a little bit over a week ago, you announced on a Friday afternoon. Stock was down 10%. Obviously, you made the Honeywell acquisition announcement about less than a month ago. Maybe any clarity you can give there in terms of the board thought process in this and any relationship. Maybe you're limited in what you can speak, but I've got to ask that question.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Oh, of course, Keith. Frankly, I would have answered it even if you hadn't. You know, let's turn back the clock a little bit about Brady and my appreciation for the board we have and what they've had to go through for the last several months. If you were to take Brady pre-Christmastime, we were, I would say, a very, very stable, almost monotonous earnings grower and cash flow generator that required, you know, of course required input from our board. Let's be frank. It was a very stable business, our board was perfectly capable of meeting once a quarter and giving us our steering and guidance and working with management.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Over the last, really the last, I would say, four or five months, I feel like I owe our board overtime pay because we've gone from once a quarter pretty regular cadence meetings to at one point, as we were working through the acquisition and working through all of the details, we were meeting on a weekly basis and sometimes on the weekends. This was a significant, and frankly unexpected from most of our board members, level of commitment that was never anticipated as we constituted our board. I mean, you know, if you can imagine going from once a quarter to now you have to call in every single week, sometimes for hours, and be directly engaged in a whole host of workflows. This same amount of work is actually gonna continue because, again, our board is very involved, very professional.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

I can't say enough about their participation and the amount of time they've had to spend. This is gonna go through at least our fiscal year and likely through the rest of the calendar year of very significant involvement. Some of our board members simply said, "I cannot commit to that level of engagement. I can't, you know, I have a regular calendar. I have other board commitments. I can't be on the call weekly, continuously for all of these different work streams." I can understand it. I recognize the optics are awful. I can say anything in the world, and people can decide how much they believe or how much they don't. The fact of the matter is the board members who were there for the Honeywell acquisition all voted affirmatively. There was no dissent.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

There was actually no question that the deal was an awesome deal for Brady. The level of time commitment was and will be staggering. Again, I'm gonna give tremendous credit to the board members that we do have for sticking through all this and being available for significant amounts of time to make this deal happen.

Keith Housum
Keith Housum
Analyst at Northcoast Research

Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

Thanks for asking the question.

Operator

That concludes today's question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call back to Russell Shaller for closing remarks.

Russell Shaller
Russell Shaller
President and CEO at Brady Corporation

That's great. Thank you all for your time this morning. We reported an excellent quarter. I'm proud of our entire team globally. With their ability to deliver 8.2% organic sales growth in this disruptive geopolitical environment is impressive. We're growing in all of our major geographies. Our investment in R&D is paying off. Our new products are performing well, and we finished the quarter with momentum. We're in a great spot to finish the year on a high note. Thank you for your time this morning. Operator, you may disconnect the call.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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