Curtiss-Wright (CW) 46th Annual William Blair Growth Stock Conference summary

Business Overview and Strategy

• Focuses on highly engineered, mission-critical technologies for diverse end markets, leveraging core technology across sectors to drive financial performance.

• Employs 9,000 people, with a quarter being engineers, fostering collaboration and innovation to solve complex engineering challenges.

• Launched the Pivot to Growth strategy in 2021, supported by a $4.3 billion backlog, emphasizing operational excellence, targeted R&D, and talent investments.

• R&D investments have outpaced sales growth over the past 5.5 years, aligning with key secular growth drivers and unique IP.

• Operational Growth Platform formalized processes, leading to 300 basis points of margin improvement since 2021 and ~1,000 bps since 2013.

Strategic Direction and Growth Initiatives

• Executing a "Pivot to Growth" strategy, focusing on commercial and operational excellence, targeted R&D, and talent investments to drive value creation and margin expansion.

• Leveraging a $4.3B backlog and a strengthened pipeline with higher growth and margin opportunities.

• Acquisitions remain the top capital allocation priority, with over $2.5B deployed since 2021 and a record share repurchase in 2025.

• Investing for growth with increased CapEx (~50% in 2025, targeting ~30% increase in 2026) and a steadily rising dividend.

• Building momentum by advancing key enablers—talent, systems, and infrastructure—to support organic growth.

Market Positioning and Portfolio Overview

• Leading provider of mission-critical technologies in aerospace, defense, commercial nuclear power, and industrial markets.

• 2026E sales expected to reach $3.74–$3.80B, with 70% from aerospace & defense and 30% from commercial markets.

• Global footprint with 76% of sales in North America, 15% in Europe, and 9% in Asia/Other.

• Portfolio positioned to capture secular growth trends in naval shipbuilding, battlefield technology, commercial aerospace, and commercial nuclear.