Eaton down 5% after CEO presents at Morgan Stanley conference

Craig Arnold, Eaton’s Chairman and CEO said earlier while presenting at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference, according to a transcript: “Yes. I mean double digits in the next few years is a tall number and it’s one that I’d say today, we’re in the midst of thinking through what our guidance is going to be for 2024 and beyond. I would say that today, we obviously have a lot of confidence in what’s happening in Electrical Americas, given the sheer size of the backlog in that business. I think what’s going on today. Most of you are aware that the picture in Europe is a little different. The picture in China is a little different. And so I’d say that very high confidence in double-digit growth in businesses like Aerospace and Electrical Americas, some of our bigger businesses. I think the story in Europe and the story in China today is a little bit of a TBD. Most of the economic data coming out of Europe has been weak. Fortunately, the Electrical space has performed better than the overall market, but still on a relative basis, Europe has been a bit of a disappointment for sure. And China has been a bit of a disappointment. We’re still seeing growth, for example, in China, but we’re not seeing the growth maybe that everybody anticipated as the government came back from COVID. So I would say that to the specific question around can we grow the company double digit over the next few years? I would say that’s a very tall order. What we’ve provided in the form of guidance, as we said, our original guidance was some 5% to 8%. We talked about being an exit rate of growth this year that’s more like 7% or 8%, which we thought was kind of more — a good starting point for the way to think about 2024.” Shares of Eaton are down $11.59, or 5%, to $226.45 in Tuesday afternoon trading.