Patrick Goris
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Carrier Global
Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Please turn to Slide 8. In short, Q4 earnings were ahead of our expectations in the guide we provided in October. Reported sales were $5.1 billion with 6% organic sales growth, including about two points of price and four points of volume. We had a favorable 13% net impact from acquisitions and divestitures. Organic sales were in-line with expectations, driven by continued strength in global commercial and North-America residential HVAC, partially offset by weakness across residential light commercial HVAC in Europe and China.
Q4 adjusted operating profit was up 65% compared to last year, driven by the contribution of Viessmann Climate Solutions, the benefit of organic growth and productivity. As a result, adjusted operating margin expanded by 370 basis-points compared to last year. The absence of commercial refrigeration was about a half-point tailwind to margin. Adjusted EPS of $0.54 was up 50% year-over-year. Operational performance was in-line with our guide and we benefited from discrete tax items.
Net interest expense was a bit light versus our guide given the earlier close of the commercial and residential fire business. Free-cash and now referred to both and was an outflow of about $90 million in the quarter. Full-year free-cash flow of $30 million was about $200 million better than we guided. Having closed residential and commercial fire in early December, we picked-up the pace on share repurchases and we ended 2024 with about $1.9 billion of share repurchases, about $1 billion more than our October guide. Moving on to the segments, starting on Slide 9. The HVAC segment had another strong quarter with organic sales growth of 11%. Organic sales in the Americas were up high-teens.
Within the Americas, commercial was up mid-teens and light commercial was a little better-than-expected and down around 10%. In the 4th-quarter of 2023, light commercial was up about 20%, so certainly a tough comp. Residential was up 35%, mostly driven by strong volume compared to a very weak Q4 last year, which was about minus 20% as our channel was in destocking mode a year-ago. On the last earnings call, we mentioned that we expected no material pre-buy in Q4.
The actual pre-buy was in-line with expectations and movement was stronger-than-expected. Movement, that is sales from our distributors to installers has continued to be strong in January this year. Organic sales in EMEA were flat, driven by double-digit growth in commercial, offset by a decline in residential and light commercial HVAC, reflecting continued market weakness. Organic sales in Asia were slightly positive, driven by strength in Japan and South Asia, partially offset by declines in our residential and light commercial business in China.
The HVAC segment adjusted operating margins were up 250 basis-points, driven by the benefit of organic growth and strong productivity. As you can see at the bottom of the slide, 2024 was another great year for our HVAC business with continued growth and margin expansion. Transitioning to refrigeration on Slide 10. Q4 was the first-quarter without commercial refrigeration given its exit on October 1. Overall results for this segment were Were as expected. Our global truck and trailer business was down around 10% with North-America down about 25% and Europe down low-single digits, only partially offset by high single-digit growth in Asia. Container was down low-single digits. Our aftermarket and Sensatech businesses were both up mid-single digits. Operating margin expanded by 160 basis-points year-over-year. For the full-year, this segment was down 1% organically with container up roughly 25%, mostly offset by declines in North-America truck and trailer. Margins expanded 20 basis-points. Turning to Slide 11. Total company orders, total company organic orders were up low-teens. Overall, HVAC orders were up about 5% with continued strong orders growth in the Americas at about 10%. EMEA and Asia organic orders were down mid-single digits. In Asia, weak orders in China residential light commercial HVAC were partially offset by China commercial HVAC orders and strength in other countries. Globally, commercial HVAC orders were up about 10%. Refrigeration orders were up around 55% in the quarter, mostly as a result of very strong growth in North-America truck trailer on an easy comp. Truck and trailer orders in Europe were up over 20% and Asia orders were up mid-single digits. Overall, we entered 2025 with robust longer-cycle backlogs in commercial HVAC and orders momentum in key businesses. Moving on to Slide 12 and shifting to 2025 organic sales guidance. We expect -- expect mid-single-digit organic growth and reported sales of between $22.5 billion and $23 billion. This also includes a $750 million year-over-year headwind from the commercial refrigeration exit. We expect roughly a one point -- we expect roughly one point of price and the remaining organic growth to come from volume and mix-up. We expect currency translation to be at about a point of headwind. The organic growth for both segments is expected to be up mid-single digits for 2025. Within HVAC, we expect the Americas to be up high-single-digits, driven by continued double-digit growth in commercial, high single-digit growth in residential, driven by the new refrigerant mix-up and low-to mid-single-digit growth in light commercial. We expect Europe to be up low-single digits with commercial up double-digits and flat sales growth in residential -- in residential and light commercial. David just walked you through our assumptions for flat sales growth in this market segment. Finally, within Asia, we expect low single-digit sales growth with China sales flat and mid-single-digit growth outside of China. Within refrigeration, we expect global Truck and trailer to be up mid-single digits with North-America truck trailer returning to growth in the second-half of the year. We expect mid to-high single-digit growth in container and double-digit growth in. Moving on to Slide 13, profit and cash guidance. Total company adjusted operating margin is expected to be up about 100 basis-points compared to 2024 with half of the increase driven by volume, price and net productivity, partially offset by investments. The absence of commercial refrigeration contributes 50 basis-points of margin expansion. Our core earnings conversion that is excluding the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and FX is expected to be about 30%. We estimate free-cash flow to be about $2.4 billion to be between $2.4 billion and $2.6 billion, reflecting roughly 100% conversion with normal seasonality. Finally, we intend to repurchase about $3 billion in shares. Through last week, we repurchased about $900 million of shares so-far this year. We estimate that average diluted share count for 2025 will be down about 5% from 2024. Moving to Slide 14. We expect adjusted EPS between $2.95 and $3.05, up 17% at the midpoint. The building blocks are identical to what we shared with you on the last earnings call, except for currency. Adjusted EPS growth includes about $0.30 of operational performance-driven by volume leverage, price and net productivity and about $45 million of corporate stranded cost elimination, partially offset by investments. We expect foreign currency translation to represent a headwind of about $0.05. As a result of debt paydown, we expect net interest expense to be a $0.5 to $0.10 tailwind. Finally, we expect a lower share count, partially offset by 22% tax-rate and NCI to provide another $0.10 to $0.15 of EPS benefit. With respect to capital deployment, we'll pay-down $1.2 billion worth of debt this quarter. The dividend per share increases by 18%. And as I mentioned earlier, share repurchases are expected to amount to $3 billion this year. As usual, additional guide items are in the appendix on Slide 17. Finally, let me -- let me provide some additional color on the first-quarter. We anticipate Q1 revenues to be about flat sequentially, a little more than $5 billion with first-quarter organic revenue growth flat-to-up low-single digits. This reflects continued strength in global commercial HVAC and a tough comparison in commercial HVAC in Europe and China. We expect organic growth for refrigeration to be about flat. We expect about 100 basis-points of margin expansion in Q1 and adjusted EPS to be between $0.55 and $0.60. So overall, we ended 2024 on a strong note and expect 2025 to be another year of strong financial performance. With that, we'll open it up for questions.