Crane NXT Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 7, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Q1 results — Sales were $388 million, up ~17% year-over-year with organic growth of ~6%; adjusted EBITDA margin rose 80 bps to 19% and adjusted EPS was $0.60, with management expecting free cash flow conversion of 90%–110% for the year.
  • Positive Sentiment: Antares Vision acquisition closed early — The deal expands Crane NXT into the $3B life sciences and food & beverage traceability markets, will add roughly $200–$210M of revenue for nine months in 2026, and management expects integration synergies and 2027 EPS accretion despite near-term dilution from incremental interest.
  • Positive Sentiment: Security & Authentication Technologies (SAT) outperformance — SAT sales grew 51% (organic ~22%) driven by U.S. currency strength and the De La Rue contribution, with adjusted EBITDA margin up ~600 bps to 20% and a target margin of ~25% by year-end supported by a robust backlog and new micro-optics wins.
  • Negative Sentiment: Detection & Traceability Technologies (DTT) / CPI near-term headwinds — Q1 DTT sales (CPI only) declined ~4% with adjusted EBITDA margin down ~160 bps due to lower hardware volume and mix; management expects CPI hardware to remain soft near-term while services grow mid-single digits, and Antares backlog (~$100M) is expected to help later in 2026.
  • Positive Sentiment: Updated 2026 guidance & balance sheet plan — Company now guides full-year sales growth of 15%–17% and an adjusted segment EBITDA margin of ~27%, maintains EPS guidance of $4.10–$4.40, and plans to reduce net leverage from ~2.9x to ~2.3x by year-end to preserve capacity for M&A in 2027.
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Earnings Conference Call
Crane NXT Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Speaker 7

Day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Crane NXT Q1 2026 earnings call. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Matthew Roach, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome you all to the first quarter of 2026 earnings call for Crane NXT. Before we begin, let me remind you that slides we'll reference during this presentation can be accessed via the investor relations section of our website at cranenxt.com and a replay of today's call will also be available on our website. Before we discuss our results, I encourage all participants to review the legal notice on slide 2, which explains the risk of forward-looking statements and the use of non-GAAP financial measures. Additionally, we refer you to the cautionary language at the bottom of our earnings release in our Form 10-K and subsequent filings pertaining to forward-looking statements.

Speaker 6

During the call, we'll also be using non-GAAP financial measures, which are reconciled to the comparable GAAP measures in the tables at the end of our press release and accompanying slide presentation, both of which are available on our website at cranenxt.com in the investor relations section. With me today are Aaron Saak, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Christina Cristiano, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. On our call this morning, we'll discuss our first quarter highlights, the early completion of the Antares Vision acquisition, our financial and operational performance, and our updated 2026 financial guidance. After our prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. With that, I'll turn the call over to Aaron.

Operator

Thank you, Matt, and good morning. I appreciate everyone joining the call today to discuss our first quarter results. I would like to start by thanking our Crane NXT team members around the world for their strong performance, which helped us begin the year with solid momentum. Starting on slide 3, in Q1, we delivered on our 3 value creation priorities of accelerating organic growth, building on our leadership positions, and driving operational excellence through CBS. In the quarter, we had organic sales growth of approximately 6%, with total sales growth of approximately 17% year-over-year. Also in the first quarter, we further built on our leadership positions, successfully completing the acquisition of Antares Vision ahead of schedule. I would like to extend a special welcome to our new team members from Antares Vision, and we are excited to have you part of the Crane NXT team.

Operator

Finally, through our focus on continuous improvement, we increased adjusted EBITDA margin by 80 basis points, a 22% improvement over the prior year. In summary, I'm pleased with our start to the year and delivering on our value creation priorities. Moving to slide 4, I'd like to provide an overview of Antares Vision and why we're so excited by the technology and expanded end markets it brings to the company. At the end of March, we successfully completed all key milestones related to closing the transaction, which was ahead of our original schedule. Now, as part of Crane NXT, Antares Vision meaningfully expands our reach into the $3 billion life sciences and food and beverage end markets and further positions Crane NXT as a global leader in authentication and traceability technologies.

Operator

As shown on this slide, Antares Vision provides advanced detection and inspection equipment, field and remote services, and track and trace software that ensures the quality and traceability of products from manufacturing through distribution to consumers. Its core end markets are life sciences and food and beverage, with sales primarily coming from the Americas and Western Europe and a growing list of customers in emerging markets. With the transaction now complete, our focus is on executing our integration and synergy plans. Moving to slide 5. With the addition of Antares Vision, we've successfully built on our core positions and created an integrated and differentiated portfolio providing customers a full suite of authentication and traceability technologies.

Operator

These include proprietary security features applied to physical products, the ability to track and trace those products through the supply chain, detection and inspection equipment to authenticate products and ensure their quality, a field service organization for commissioning and maintenance of the equipment, and unique capabilities to bring these solutions to governments around the world. These technologies and operational capabilities are a key differentiator, allowing us to truly be a trusted partner to our customers and their consumers. Moving to slide 6, Antares Vision now sits alongside our CPI business in our newly established Detection and Traceability Technology segment or DTT. We see clear and actionable opportunities for operational synergies between Antares Vision and CPI as both businesses are centered on equipment manufacturing, advanced detection system design, and field services.

Operator

We are confident we can realize these synergies leveraging our established integration and operational improvement playbook through the Crane Business System. DTT is also highly complementary to our existing Security and Authentication Technologies segment or SAT. Put simply, DTT focuses on ensuring product quality, authenticity, and traceability across global supply chains. SAT is focused on helping to prevent the counterfeiting of products and identities through our proprietary security technologies. Together, both segments position Crane NXT as a differentiated global leader across the full authentication and traceability value chain. Now, with that, let me hand the call over to Christina to review our first quarter performance in more detail and our updated guidance.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. I'd also like to express my appreciation to our associates around the world for their hard work this quarter. Starting on slide seven, we're off to a good start to the year, with sales of $388 million, an increase of approximately 17%. Organic sales increased approximately 6% year-over-year, driven by continued strong performance in SAT, partially offset by expected softness in CPI hardware. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased approximately 80 basis points to 19%, driven by the SAT volume flow-through and the realization of operating synergies in authentication. We delivered adjusted EPS of $0.60, an increase of approximately 11%, which is on track with our full year guidance expectations. Finally, free cash flow reflects normal seasonality and timing of payments in the quarter.

Speaker 3

Based on our strong backlog and delivery schedule, we expect to accelerate free cash flow throughout the year and to achieve a full year conversion ratio between 90% and 110% on track with our guidance. Moving to our segments and starting with Security and Authentication Technologies on Slide 8. In the first quarter, we achieved sales growth of 51% year-over-year, including the contribution from the De La Rue Authentication acquisition that closed in May 2025. Organic sales grew by approximately 22%, driven by continued robust demand in international currency and a favorable comparative to 2025 in U.S. currency. This quarter, we were excited to welcome the U.S. Treasurer, Brandon Beach, to our currency facilities in Dalton, Massachusetts, and Nashua, New Hampshire, to learn more about the advanced technology and security measures that go into manufacturing the U.S. currency.

Speaker 3

We look forward to the launch of the new $10 banknote, which is expected to be announced this year. We also ended the quarter with three new micro-optics wins in our international currency business and are on track to achieve our full year target of 10-15 new denominations. I'd like to congratulate our currency team on their continued success, including their work for the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, which was recently named the 2025 Banknote of the Year by the International Bank Note Society. These notes, which were released last year, are beautifully designed and feature our advanced micro-optics technology on both sides of each banknote. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased approximately 600 basis points to 20%, reflecting the benefit from higher U.S. currency volume and execution of synergies in the authentication business as planned.

Speaker 3

Looking forward, we expect to see continued margin expansion in SAT and are on track to end the year with an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 25%. SAT backlog continues to be robust, and this, along with a healthy funnel of opportunities, gives us high confidence in achieving our full-year sales target. Moving to Detection and Traceability Technologies on Slide 9, I'd like to highlight that our first quarter sales and adjusted EBITDA reflect CPI only as the Antares Vision transaction closed at the end of the quarter. Additionally, as of March 31, we have consolidated Antares balance sheet into Crane NXT and are now including its backlog in the DTT total as presented on this page. Sales declined approximately 4% year-over-year, as mid-single-digit growth in CPI service was more than offset by expected lower hardware sales.

Speaker 3

Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased approximately 160 basis points year-over-year, reflecting the lower hardware volume and product mix. We expect accelerating sales growth and margin accretion in CPI throughout the year, driven by productivity programs and disciplined cost management. These factors will drive an incremental improvement to CPI's expected full-year adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 20-30 basis points. Segment backlog was $221 million, including approximately $100 million of Antares Vision backlog, which we expect to deliver in 2026. CPI backlog of approximately $120 million reflects sequential growth of approximately 8% with a book-to-bill ratio of approximately 1. Turning to our balance sheet on Slide 10, we ended the first quarter with net leverage of approximately 2.9 times, including the financing for Antares Vision.

Speaker 3

Looking ahead, we anticipate deploying free cash flow toward debt reduction and expect to end 2026 with net leverage of approximately 2.3 times. This low leverage and our substantial liquidity provide us with ample capacity to deploy capital to M&A in 2027, further building on our leadership positions. Moving now to Slide 11. We are updating our 2026 guidance to reflect the inclusion of Antares Vision. For the full year, we now expect total sales growth of 15%-17%. In SAT, we continue to expect high single-digit sales growth driven by high single-digit growth in U.S. currency from a favorable mix of banknote demand and low single-digit growth in international currency over a very strong performance in 2025.

Speaker 3

In Crane Authentication, we expect mid-single-digit organic growth, with total growth in the low 20s%, including a full year contribution from De La Rue Authentication. In DTT, we expect sales growth in the low 20s%, including Antares Vision. In CPI, we continue to expect sales to be flat year-over-year, reflecting mid-single-digit growth in service offset by approximately flat to slightly down sales in hardware and vending. Antares Vision will add approximately $200 million-$210 million of revenue for 9 months in 2026, with Q4 being the highest quarter. We now expect our full year adjusted segment EBITDA margin to be approximately 27%, including Antares Vision.

Speaker 3

We are maintaining our full-year EPS guidance range of $4.10 to $4.40 as we expect the benefit of productivity initiatives in the core businesses and the EBITDA contribution from Antares to offset the expected incremental interest expense. Looking ahead to the second quarter, we expect mid-teen sales growth in the SAT segment, driven by timing of international currency shipments. In DTT, we expect mid-20s% sales growth, with CPI sales approximately flat to slightly down year-over-year and Antares Vision contributing approximately $60 million-$70 million of sales in the quarter. I'll turn it back to Aaron to provide closing remarks.

Operator

Thank you, Christina. To wrap up, we delivered a strong start to the year, delivering on our value creation priorities. First, we're accelerating our organic growth, achieving mid-single digits in Q1. Second, we're building on our leadership positions in authentication and traceability technologies by closing the Antares Vision acquisition ahead of schedule. It's expanding our TAM into the life science and food and beverage end markets. Third, we drove operational improvements, expanding our adjusted EBITDA margins by 80 basis points. Putting this all together, we continue building momentum as we progress toward our longer-term targets, as shown on the next slide. As we outlined at our recent Investor Day, our first priority is focused on accelerating organic growth, with a goal of delivering sustainable mid-single-digit growth over the coming years.

Operator

Second, we plan to continue strengthening our core businesses through targeted organic investments alongside a disciplined approach to M&A, with acquisitions that build on our leadership positions in authentication and traceability technologies. Taken together, these initiatives are expected to grow the company to approximately $2.5 billion in sales in 2028 while maintaining net leverage below 3 times. Third, we're committed to driving operational excellence, we expect to sustain adjusted EBITDA margins in the mid-20% range and to generate approximately 100% free cash flow conversion. We're building a technology-driven leader with durable advantages, strong cash generation, and a clear roadmap for long-term value creation. Thank you again for your time this morning, and I'd also like to again thank our Crane NXT team members around the world for their commitment to our customers, to our communities, and to all of our stakeholders.

Operator

With that, operator, we're ready to take our first question.

Speaker 7

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Thanks. Morning.

Operator

Hey, good morning, Matt. How are you?

Speaker 5

Good, thanks. I just want to focus on the international portion of the currency business for a moment. Is there a way for you to either quantify or qualify how the go-forward funnel of opportunity looks in that business today versus maybe a year ago? We're aware of a significant amount of oncoming redesign activity internationally. I'm wondering if you can sort of pencil out through the end of the decade whether you envision that peaking or still extending further beyond that.

Operator

Yeah. Hey, thanks, Matt, and appreciate the question. I think as you know and we've talked about, we're just incredibly confident in the performance of the international currency business. We have a backlog in place that takes us through this year. We're building out for 2027 and even some bookings into 2028. Very high confidence in how we're performing. I'd go back, Matt, to, you know, what we talked about at our Investor Day. We're adding between 10-15 new micro-optic wins a year. With that, when you pull that out to 2028, we're gonna be approaching 200 denominations under or using our micro-optics versus just, you know, 150 in 2024. Significant increase there.

Operator

To your point, we see a number of opportunities, in fact, over 70 denominations that are going to come to being quoted and designed between now and 2030. That momentum, we do not see abating here over the next coming years. My crystal ball may not be good enough for a decade, but I can tell you for the next 4-5 years, you know, out to 2030, this is a very strong business with a lot of optimism and tailwinds to it.

Speaker 5

Thanks. In terms of Antares, can you maybe help quantify Obviously, that's gonna be diluted this year. Can you maybe help quantify the magnitude of dilution and maybe if you have an early kind of prognostication on how accretive that deal may be in 2027?

Operator

Yeah

Speaker 5

Drive, you know, efficiencies, et cetera?

Operator

Yeah. Thanks, Matt. Exactly as you've indicated here, we do have added interest expense coming in because we closed the deal and closed it earlier than we originally expected. That's going to be partially offset by the increased profit that Antares Vision brings in 2026. Net net, we're seeing a $few million, that are going to be offset though by increased margins in our core businesses. As Christina said in our prepared remarks, we're seeing that coming out of CPI with 20 to 3 basis points of improvement in margin. We're able to cover that $couple million of, you know, net headwind out of that in Antares.

Operator

In 2027, it will be accretive to our EPS, and certainly, we'll wait to give updated guidance later in this year, early next in reality on exactly what that means in 2027. Exactly as we expected other than we were able to successfully close the deal earlier, Matt. We feel good about that, and the margins that we're seeing in the core are really coming through to hold that EPS range for us.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bob Labick with CJS Securities. Your line is now open.

Speaker 1

Good morning. Congrats on a good start to the year.

Operator

Thanks, Bob. Good to hear you.

Speaker 1

Yeah, you guys as well. Looking at SAT and kind of digging in a little deeper, and maybe we're a little off, but currency sales were much stronger than we expected, and authentication were a little bit weaker than expected. Could you talk about the, you know, underlying dynamics between the two? Because you didn't I think you maintained your full year guidance, it may be timing, it may be something else. If you could just, you know, give us a sense of the strength in currency, and I think it looks like OpSec may have been, you know, down year-over-year, but you still have mid-single-digit organic growth as part of your guidance for authentication.

Operator

Yeah. Why don't I hand it over to Christina? We can talk about currency, and I'll take authentication.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Sure. That sounds great. Hi, Bob. Hey, starting with currency, I just wanna start by saying, as Aaron just said, we have very high confidence in our 2026 sales guidance. We'll expect to see mid-single digit growth in currency for the full year. That's a high single digit growth in the U.S. based on favorable mix, and a low single digit growth in international based on a very difficult comp to 2025, as you know, where we had just a blowout year, particularly at the end of the year last year. Now, if you step back, that creates a linearity dynamic this year.

Speaker 3

You know, the phasing of the sales will not be linear this year, currency will have exceptionally strong performance in the first half, driven by U.S. currency, then less strong performance in the second half, driven by that difficult comp in international. You know, overall, just on currency, as Aaron said, you know, we've got over 90% of our sales in backlog for 2026, and we have high confidence in that sales guidance.

Operator

Yeah. Let me pick up on that on the rest of the segment in authentication. Bob, really performed as we expected in Q1. You know, we've been going through a lot of CBS and synergy activities. That's on track to ahead of schedule from what we originally said, you know, a few years ago when we first did OpSec and then last year when we closed De La Rue. What you're seeing run through is some of the 80/20 work and again, the rationalization of the products, and that's what we expected. As Christina said in her prepared remarks, we're expecting mid-single digit growth in authentication this year.

Operator

I do wanna point out, Bob, and congratulate our authentication team, and may be hard to believe, but just this last week, we celebrated the 1-year anniversary of Crane Authentication, where we brought the businesses together, and that's what's really driving a lot of this great 80/20 work in CBS. Congratulations to that team, and I know we're all excited about the next few years ahead.

Speaker 1

Super. Okay. Thank you for all that. Then, congrats on closing Antares early. As it relates to Antares, could you just remind us of some of the growth drivers? Let us know, Given the European exposure and everything, has it been impacted at all by the war, higher transportation, fuel costs, any kind of impacts from the macro on Antares?

Operator

Sure. Let me take that last part first, Bob. The simple answer here is no. We don't really see any significant or material impact to Antares from the war or any of the macro events occurring. You know, what really excites us by it, by bringing it into the portfolio is its exposure to secular growth and in markets like pharmaceuticals, life sciences, and food and beverage that expand our TAM up to now $13 billion and really put us in the position of market-leading authentication and traceability technologies. We see these as long-term, secular growing markets at mid-single digits with the leading products in an integrated portfolio. We're excited to have Antares in the portfolio. I'd say in the last 30 days since we closed, we've really hit the ground running.

Speaker 7

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer. Your line is now open.

Speaker 4

Hey, good morning. This is Isaac Salton on for Ian. Thanks for taking all the questions.

Operator

Yeah, hi, Isaac.

Speaker 4

The question would be on the DTT side, as far as CPI hardware. You know, has anything changed as far as growth expectations across end markets? Maybe when you would expect to see some normalization in vending. The second part would just be on CPI services growth. Maybe what's driving that. You know, is it mainly more recurring maintenance across some of the installed base? Thanks.

Operator

Yeah. Hey, thanks, Isaac, for that question. You know, really pleased here with CPI. Performed exactly as expected in Q1. The team did a really good job and as you know, Isaac, we're focused in that business on driving and maintaining our high margins. We're gonna end this year with adjusted EBITDA margins of about 30%, and as Christina said, we're increasing that, you know, incrementally by 20 to 30 bips based on productivity programs and cost actions going on inside that business, and maintaining approximately a 100% free cash flow. Really, you know, strong as expected, consistent performance here from CPI. To your question on the different subcomponents of that business, you know, we think about that first as services, hardware, and vending. Services is growing mid-single digits in the quarter.

Operator

We expect that for the year, and that's where we were growing last year, and it's where we're targeting investment and a build-out of the capabilities. It's coming from expanding our service offering, not only inside of our CPI equipment portfolio with a better attach rate, but also to third-party equipment. That's where we see the ARR or recurring revenue growth continuing to occur in that business. As you know, that's a very resilient, sticky revenue base that we like quite a bit. Good performance there. Hardware and vending, largely as expected. We had some seasonality here in the first quarter that we talked about and guided to. That played out as expected, and as Christina mentioned, we expect some recovery there as we go through the year.

Operator

Net-net, being about flat for the last part of the year. Hopefully that helps, Isaac. In summary, really feel good about the performance in Q1 and performing as expected.

Speaker 4

Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. Then just as a follow-up on U.S. currency, obviously with the new 10-dollar bill rolling out, maybe if you could I think you walked through a little bit of the growth trajectory in the business earlier, but maybe how you see volumes progressing through the year and then if we should see a benefit rolling into 2027.

Operator

Yeah. Thanks, Isaac. Hey, we're ready to go with the new 10-dollar bill. Our team's done a great job, you know, our part of that is largely set. What we're really focused on now with our engineer and designing team, is getting ready for the 50 and getting ahead of that so that we're ready to go when the BEP is ready to start their pilot production. When you look at what's been designed for the 10, which obviously hasn't been announced, with what we're doing on the 50, you know, very confident that the U.S. government is gonna include advanced security features, similar if not better than what other governments are doing around the world, we see that playing out in the international currency business.

Operator

In terms of this year, you know, we're benefiting from a nice mix improvement in the U.S. currency, and that's going to read through to high single-digit growth this year. Very confident in that, we typically follow what the Fed order has projected and that's what we're seeing. Really the uplift as we talked about with you and others for the new U.S. currency materially occurs really more in 2027 for us. Feel very confident in the long-term prognosis of this business with what we're seeing.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Zach Waljasper with UBS. Your line is now open.

Speaker 8

Hey, thanks for the question. I guess, like, first question I had was just something around the model. Can you just help parse out what's happening below the line? 'Cause it looks like tax was a little high 1Q, and then the non-operating expense is going up relative to the previous guide. The other question I had was just, you know, around with, you know, Antares Vision just closed. Anything you guys can share around, like, the appetite for further M&A and M&A funnel? Like, should we expect, you know, more deals within the next year or so? I know it's part of the long-term outlook.

Operator

Yeah

Speaker 8

Just curious about, you know, maybe the more nearer term now that it just closed. Thank you.

Operator

Yeah. Hey, thanks, Zach. Why don't I hand it over to Christina on the modeling question, and then I'll take the M&A part of your question.

Speaker 3

Yeah. I'll just make a note that there are no changes to our core business guidance. The only changes to the guidance were to include Antares Vision. Just to be clear on that. The impact of Antares, as you see reading through, you know, there's a increase in the sales for DTT, then an adjustment to margin just for the dilution that Antares brings because it comes into the portfolio at a lower operating margin. We expect to execute CBS to drive that margin back up to the low 20%, as we've done with our other acquisitions over the next few years. Feel very confident that we'll get that margin up to the low 20%. What you're seeing in non-operating is the addition of interest expense related to the Antares Vision financing.

Speaker 3

That, you know, in total gets offset with the profitability that Antares brings into the company, as well as the productivity that Aaron mentioned in the core business. When you put all that together, we're able to maintain our EPS guidance range of $4.10-$4.40, and we have high confidence in that guidance range.

Operator

Zach, let me take the second part there, the question on M&A. You know, right now our focus, as you can probably imagine, is on integrating Antares Vision. We're on track and really, my compliments to our team and the Antares Vision team. We've hit the ground running on that here in the month of April. As it relates to future M&A, I would frame that more as, you know, we're really not looking to anything until 2027. That's also so that we keep our balance sheet well below 3. As you saw, we're at 2.9. We're gonna deploy our cash flow to pay down that debt, get into the low 2s as we go through 2026, and then we'll be ready to go in 2027. The funnel remains healthy.

Operator

We're gonna continue to use our disciplined framework around markets that are focused on authentication and traceability technologies and feel very good about where we're positioned to potentially do something in 2027.

Speaker 8

All right. Great. Thank you so much, guys.

Operator

Thanks.

Speaker 3

You're welcome.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Bobby Brooks with Northland Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Speaker 2

Good morning, guys, and thank you for taking my question. I get it's still early days on the ownership of Antares, but I know one of the pieces they brought into the portfolio that's really exciting is the tracking equipment paired with the software. I was hoping you could discuss what sort of incremental tech abilities that brings into your portfolio, because I think some folks might not appreciate that enough, given you already had some hardware and software for tracking and tracing. Curious to hear more there.

Operator

Yeah. Thanks, Bobby. I appreciate that question. It really is a key jewel inside the Antares portfolio. We call that the Diamond Platform. You're right, it's actually part of the integrated portfolio we now have when you link this to some of the capabilities we had in our authentication business, tracking and tracing of products more through the brand and sports leagues and luxury good channels. What Antares brings, it's really a step up in the capabilities because now we're moving into markets like pharmaceutical and food and beverage that in some cases are regulated by the governments. That's a whole step up in sophistication to track the product from the point of manufacture all the way through the consumption of that product by the consumer and every step in between.

Operator

I would just say it's a, again, more sophisticated, more detailed type of track and trace software that really brings and elevates our capabilities. Why we're excited by it, Bobby, is just first, the underlying growth in that market, that more governments are regulating this, whether pharmaceutical products and food and beverage, as well as the ability to take the core capabilities of it into other markets. Of course, as you just said, it's very early days for that, but that's strategically where we wanna go with the technology.

Speaker 2

Super helpful. Maybe just a follow-up there. Do you think it's more likely to take that higher, you know, the higher-end track and trace from Antares to some of the markets that you were already in previously in SAT? Or is it maybe more taking some of the SAT products and layering them into the customers that Antares is already serving?

Operator

It could be both. I tell you what's our focus right now, and it's a little bit due to it's faster to take the products from Crane Authentication and start to partner those with the Antares sales and products into their channel. We're already doing that. That's a key part of where we saw commercial synergies. That's the early focus area here in 2026.

Speaker 2

That's super helpful. Then just last one for me. You've mentioned, and I think in the prepared remarks, you targeted growth or targeted organic growth initiatives, and I was just curious if we could hear more about what those look like. Is it similar to the facility expansions in Malta and domestically, within SAT? Or is it hiring more sales folks to, you know, go after those cross-sell opportunities or breaking into new markets? Or maybe it's something completely different?

Operator

No, thanks, Bobby. I appreciate the getting a little more precise on that. It really is what you referred to. It's this increase in CapEx and OpEx in our primarily international currency business to take advantage of the just increased win rate we're having and what we see in the coming years. Maybe, Christina, you can talk to some of that in more detail.

Speaker 3

Yeah. We spoke about this last quarter a little bit, you know, just to reframe, you know, the international currency demand right now is exceeding our expectations. In total, our CapEx will still stay in that same range of about 3%-5%, but we'll see a greater allocation toward currency. Right now, this is focused on building new production lines and outsourcing with partners so that we can just increase our capacity. As Aaron Saak said, you know, we'll be spending more. You're seeing a little bit of cost coming through in OpEx right now related to freight and supplies and outsourcing, that'll be a few million dollars this year.

Speaker 3

Later this year, we'll ramp up more on CapEx, which will take, you know, 1 to 2 years to build the facility, the production lines that we're working on. You know, overall, I think the key point here is we're actively managing our working capital and focusing our CapEx on the areas that'll drive organic growth and the highest return.

Speaker 2

Very helpful. Thank you for the questions.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Summerville with D.A. Davidson. Your line is now open.

Speaker 5

Thanks. I think it makes a lot of sense to take a minute and just kind of talk through maybe the pluses and minuses that you would want us to be thinking about from a modeling standpoint as we kind of progress through the rest of the year. You know, $0.60 in EPS in Q1, how should we be thinking about kind of the sequential build in earnings through the year, you know, to, say, the midpoint of your guidance range? What are the more pronounced things you want us to all be aware of and kind of just a little bit of help with that earnings build?

Speaker 3

Yeah. Maybe I'll start and then, Aaron, you can jump in. Again, just confirming that we are maintaining our full year guidance range or full year EPS guidance range of $4.10-$4.40. You can expect an acceleration, you know, throughout the year. A linear progression of EPS throughout the year. Antares comes into the portfolio and is a little bit dilutive, as Aaron said, a few million dollars to EPS, but we plan to offset that with productivity in the core. There's really not a change to the core EPS guidance.

Operator

I would add, Matt, on the top line, which will definitely flow through, right? In terms of the pluses, you're gonna see an acceleration here of CPI, you know, exiting Q1, as we talked about, really unchanged from how we talked about that last quarter. With a little bit of incremental improvement in our margins as we said in the prepared remarks. For the rest of DTT, which is Antares, you know, the phasing of that as you think about the year, is a little more skewed into the 4th quarter. That's the normal seasonality of their business, where they typically ship large projects, particularly in the pharma space at the end of the calendar year. That's something not new, but normal in that business.

Operator

With that comes a little bit of an improvement in operating profit or EBITDA margins in the fourth quarter. The one thing I would point out, and we've talked about this, but we will see it as currency inside of the SAT business continues to grow in Q2, we're gonna face some tougher comps as we get to the back half of the year. I really wanna point that out, particularly in late Q3 into Q4, where we just had a one, you know, outstanding performance in Q4 of last year. That's gonna tend to become a negative top line growth for us in Q4, but it's just due to the strength that we had in 2025. Hopefully that helps, Matt, give you a little bit more color.

Speaker 5

Yes. Thank you. Then, maybe if you can just comment a bit on what kind of magnitude of relative price capture you expect incrementally in 2026 across the two businesses. Thank you.

Operator

Yeah. I, again, I like to think about it, you know, ex currency, Matt, because of that being a project business and you kind of see it, though, come through in the margin rates in that business. When you think about CPI, Authentication, let's stick to the core there. You know, we're going to see kind of a low-mid single-digit price increase year-over-year, and we're more than offsetting the inflation we're seeing. That does not include, though, some of the actions we've taken, like many companies right now, to offset freight increases that are coming through. Team has done a great job there. We are offsetting those. Kind of core price of call it low to mid-single digits across the portfolio.

Speaker 5

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Thanks, Matt.

Speaker 7

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Aaron W. Saak for closing remarks.

Operator

All right. Well, thank you, operator, and thanks again for all the questions today. As we conclude our call, I'd like to once again thank our Crane NXT team around the world for their solid start to the year. I also wanna take another moment to welcome our new Antares Vision colleagues to the company. We're excited to have you, and welcome aboard. As I mentioned in my earlier remarks, Q1 was an important proof point on delivering on our value creation priorities, and I look forward to giving you all an update on our progress next quarter. Thank you again for joining today, and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Speaker 7

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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