Crane NXT Raises EPS Guidance as Antares Vision Drives Sales Higher
Crane NXT posted second-quarter sales of $493.2 million, up 22% from a year earlier, though organic growth held to just 3% as acquired revenue did the heavy lifting.
Crane NXT (CXT) reported second-quarter sales of $493.2 million, up 22% from a year earlier, and raised its full-year adjusted earnings guidance. The industrial technology company's organic sales growth came to just 3%, or $11.3 million, with the remaining 18.4 percentage points of growth attributable to acquisitions, primarily Antares Vision, which closed March 31, 2026.
The acquisition-driven growth marks a shift from earlier in the year. Organic growth ran at 5.6% in the first quarter of 2026 and just 1% in the third quarter of 2025, meaning the current quarter's headline sales figure leans more heavily on deal-making than any recent period.
Adjusted earnings per share rose 13% to $1.10 from $0.97 a year earlier. Crane NXT raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $4.22 to $4.42, up from $4.10 to $4.40, a guide the company had held flat since the first quarter and which traces back to the initial range set in the fourth quarter of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA margin, however, compressed 80 basis points to 23.4% from 24.2%, reversing the 80-basis-point expansion the company posted in the first quarter.
Crane NXT now reports results under two segments, Security and Authentication Technologies (SAT) and Digital Transformation Technologies (DTT), having retired the separate Crane Payment Innovations segment disclosure used as recently as the fourth quarter of 2025. The two segments moved in opposite directions on profitability. DTT organic sales fell 3.4%, or $7.2 million, an improvement from the first quarter's 5.1% organic decline, but total DTT sales grew 26.1% almost entirely on the back of acquisitions, which contributed 30.1 percentage points, or $63.7 million, of that growth. DTT operating margin fell 670 basis points to 16.5% from 23.2%, a smaller drop than the 840-basis-point compression recorded in the first quarter.
SAT told a different story. Segment operating margin expanded 790 basis points to 17.2% from 9.3%, building on a 590-basis-point gain in the first quarter, while organic sales growth accelerated to 9.6%, or $18.5 million, though that trailed the first quarter's 22.4% organic surge as the segment's post-DLR integration comparisons normalize. Crane NXT widened its full-year SAT sales growth guidance to a range of high single digits to low double digits, up from a high-single-digit guide issued in the first quarter.
Backlog climbed to $755.5 million as of June 30, 2026, from $649.3 million at the end of the first quarter and $492.8 million at the end of 2025. DTT backlog nearly doubled sequentially to $257.4 million from $220.8 million, with $124.7 million of that tied to the newly acquired Antares Vision business. Adjusted free cash flow conversion reached 124.3% for the quarter, up from 120.1% a year earlier and well above the 61.4% six-month conversion figure reported through the first quarter.
The Antares Vision deal reshaped the balance sheet. Long-term debt rose to $1,260.0 million from $1,004.4 million at year-end 2025 to fund the acquisition, pushing net leverage to 2.7 times trailing adjusted EBITDA. Goodwill increased to $1,436.0 million from $1,164.0 million and intangible assets rose to $745.7 million from $557.2 million, reflecting purchase accounting for the deal.
GAAP net income margin improved 100 basis points to 7.2% from 6.2%, reversing a first-quarter decline in which acquisition-related expenses had pulled net income margin down 490 basis points to 1.7%. Full-year sales growth guidance held at 15% to 17%, unchanged from the first quarter but sharply above the 4% to 6% initial guidance the company issued in February 2026, before the Antares Vision acquisition was completed.