David A. Zapico
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at AMETEK
Thank you, Kevin and good morning, everyone. AMETEK delivered strong results in the third quarter. Our businesses executed extremely well, resulted in earnings per share above our expectations, solid margin performance, outstanding cash flow conversion and double-digit growth in overall orders with positive growth in organic orders. Additionally, during the quarter, we deployed approximately $60 million on share repurchases.
Subsequent to the end of the quarter, we acquired Virtek Vision, an excellent strategic fit with our Creaform business. I am very pleased with our team's performance. Our businesses remain focused on managing through short-term macro headwinds, while ensuring we are positioned for long-term growth. We have a proven successful growth model, an efficient operating structure, robust cash flows, a strong balance sheet and leading positions across a diverse set of niche markets.
Now let me turn to our third quarter financial results. Third quarter sales were $1.71 billion, up 5% from the same period in 2023. Organic sales were down 2%, acquisitions added 7.5 points and foreign currency was flat. Overall orders in the quarter were up 12%. Book-to-bill was 1.02 and organic orders were up 2%. Additionally, we saw a solid sequential growth in orders. We ended the quarter with a strong backlog of $3.44 billion near record levels.
AMETEK's operational performance in the third quarter was excellent. Our disciplined approach to cost management and operational efficiency resulted in strong margins. Operating income in the quarter was $446 million, a 2% increase over the third quarter of 2023, and operating margins were 26.1% in the quarter. Core margins, excluding the dilutive impact from acquisitions and the impact of foreign currency, were very strong at 27.4%, up 40 basis points versus the prior year.
EBITDA in the quarter was $553 million, up 4% versus the prior year, with EBITDA margins an impressive 31.2%. Cash flow in the third quarter was excellent with free cash flow up 4% versus the prior year and free cash flow conversions of very strong 135%, reflecting our asset-light business model and operating capability. This operating performance led to earnings of $1.66 per diluted share, up 1% versus the third quarter of 2023 and above our guidance range of $1.60 to $1.62 per share.
Now let me provide some additional details at the operating group level. First, the Electronic Instruments Group. EIG continues to perform well with strong margin expansion and overall outstanding levels of operating margins, reflecting the quality of our businesses. EIG sales were $1.13 billion, in line with the third quarter of last year. Organic sales were down 2% and acquisitions contributed two points. Growth remained solid across our aerospace and defense businesses, while our high-end research instrumentation business, CAMECA, also saw strong growth in the quarter.
While we did see some temporary delays in project spending across parts of our EIG business as we had expected, our new funnel pipeline remained solid and our businesses are very well positioned across a number of secular growth markets. EIG operating income was $339 million, up 1% and operating margins were a very strong 29.9%, up 40 basis points from the prior year. EIG core margins were 30.2%, up 70 basis points versus last year's third quarter.
Now switching to the Electromechanical Group. EMG's third quarter sales were $574 million, up 18% versus the prior year, with organic sales down 3% and acquisitions contributing over 20 points to growth. Strong growth across our aerospace and defense businesses in the quarter was offset by expected weakness within our OEM exposed businesses due to the impact of inventory destocking. EMG orders were very strong in the quarter, growing 12% organically. EMG's operating income in the quarter was $132 million, up 3% compared to the prior year period, while EMG's third quarter operating margins were 22.9% with excellent core margins of 26.1%.
AMETEK delivered a strong performance in the third quarter, effectively navigating demand headwinds to deliver strong results. We remain focused on executing our growth model and positioning AMETEK for continued long-term growth, while ensuring we deliver strong results in the face of a choppy macro environment. Now turning to our acquisition strategy. Strategic acquisitions are a core component of our growth model. We are committed to deploying our strong cash flow and acquisitions to expand our portfolio in highly-attractive market segments.
With that, I'm excited to announce our newest acquisition, Virtek Vision. Vertex Vision is a leading provider of laser-based projection and inspection systems, offering a suite of 2D and 3D laser projectors, smart cameras and advanced measurement solutions powered by their proprietary AI software. Virtek automated systems enhance productivity, improve quality and reduce cost across a range of aerospace, defense and industrial applications. Vertex is an excellent strategic fit with our Creaform business, branding its technology offerings and enabling a wider range of automation and inspection capabilities for our customers. Virtek is headquartered in Waterloo, Canada and has annual sales of approximately $40 million. I would like to welcome the Virtek team to the AMETEK family.
Looking ahead, our acquisition pipeline remains robust. As noted, we have a strong and flexible balance sheet and anticipate remaining active in this area. AMETEK also remains committed to investing in our businesses to ensure they are positioned for long-term sustainable growth. In 2024, we are investing an incremental $90 million in growth initiatives, including our new product development efforts where our teams are focused on developing highly-differentiated technologies to help solve our customers' most complex challenges.
Throughout our business, we see countless examples of innovative products and technologies being developed to support our customers and provide them with the advanced differentiated capabilities they need. One way, we measure the success of our new product development activities as through our Vitality Index, which measures the sales from products introduced over the past three years. In the third quarter, our Vitality Index was an outstanding 28%.
In addition to our internal development activities, I'm also pleased to announce that our CAMECA business, a leader in microanalytical and metrology instrumentation, recently completed a small technology acquisition of Polygon Physics. Polygon Physics specializes in ultra compact, ultra-low power electron, cyclotron resonance technology. This technology enhances CAMECA's capabilities in advanced metrology instrumentation and advanced chip manufacturing. Polygon provides us access to cutting-edge ion source technology and expertise that will help accelerate CAMECA's new product development efforts and enhance our technology portfolio. We're excited to welcome the Polygon team to AMETEK.
Now turning to our outlook for the remainder of the year. Given our third quarter results, we are raising our earnings guidance for the full year. We continue to expect overall sales to be up 5% to 7% versus the prior year. Diluted earnings per share for the year are now expected to be in the range of $6.77 to $6.82, up 6% to 7% versus the prior year. This is an increase from our previous guidance range of $6.70 to $6.80 per diluted share. For the fourth quarter, we anticipate overall sales to be up mid-single digits with earnings in the range of $1.81 to $1.86, up 8% to 11% versus the prior year.
In summary, I'm pleased with the team's performance in the quarter and thus far in 2024. We're managing through an uncertain macro-environment and confident in our ability to navigate these challenges. AMETEK has been very successful over a long period of time, managing a diverse set of highly-differentiated niche businesses.
The AMETEK growth model has allowed us to deliver double-digit earnings growth throughout different phases of the economic cycle. The strength of our portfolio, combined with our operational excellence capabilities and acquisition strategy, has allowed us to deliver outstanding results. It has also allowed us to successfully manage through periods of economic weakness or uncertainty and emerge even stronger with exceptional growth. We are excited for the future.
I will now turn it over to Dalip Puri, who will take us through some of the financial details of the quarter and then we're glad to take your questions. Dalip?