Xylem Inc Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Good day, everyone. Welcome to Xylem's second quarter 2026 results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypads. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Mr. Gregory Giometti, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and FP&A. Please go ahead. Thank you, operator.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Xylem's second quarter 2026 earnings call. With me today are Chief Executive Officer, Matthew Pine, and Chief Financial Officer, Bill Grogan. They will provide their perspectives on Xylem's second quarter results and discuss the third quarter and full year 2026 outlook. Following our prepared remarks, we will address questions related to the information covered on the call. I'll ask that you please keep to one question and a follow-up, then return to the queue. As a reminder, this call and our webcast are accompanied by a slide presentation available in the Investors section of our website. A replay of today's call will be available until midnight, August 11th and will be available for playback via the Investors section of our website under the heading Investors Events. Please turn to slide two.

We will make some forward-looking statements on today's call, including references to future events or developments that we anticipate will or may occur in the future. These statements are subject to future risks and uncertainties, such as those factors described in Xylem's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and in subsequent reports filed with the SEC. Please note that the company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements publicly to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from those anticipated. Please turn to slide three. We have provided you with a summary of our key performance metrics, including both GAAP and non-GAAP metrics. For the purposes of today's call, all references will be made on an organic and/or adjusted basis, unless otherwise indicated. Non-GAAP financials have been reconciled for you and are included in the appendix section of the presentation.

Now, please turn to slide four. I will turn the call over to our CEO, Matthew Pine.

Thank you, Greg. Welcome to the team. It's great to have you with us today. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Across our markets, we're seeing a clear theme. Both utilities and industrial customers are placing greater value on comprehensive water solutions that help improve resilience, performance, and efficiency. Over the past several years, we've been intentionally positioning Xylem for this moment, and today that strategy is increasingly taking shape. Municipal remains a core strength and a resilient foundation for our business. At the same time, we've been increasing our exposure to high growth industrial verticals where our technology, services, and water expertise create greater value for customers. This evolution is being driven by three factors. First, more industries are relying on water to support quality, reliability, and operational performance.

Second, the AI ecosystem build-out is increasing the strategic importance of water across a broader set of end markets. Third, our portfolio actions are sharpening our capabilities around the markets where we see the strongest long-term growth and value creation. One of the clearest trends we see is that customers increasingly want simplicity. They're looking to work with a strategic partner that can help them manage growing complexity around regulation, operational resiliency, and risk management. We've seen this play out in a number of engagements this year, from the expansion of our long-term partnership with Dow, which became the largest contract in our company's history, to our recent win with one of the world's largest chemical companies. In this engagement, we were selected over a long-term incumbent to secure a 20-year commitment.

This opportunity brings together our advanced treatment technology, operations, maintenance, and digital monitoring under a single integrated model. Importantly, this momentum reflects the stronger industrial platform we created through the Evoqua acquisition, which significantly expands our capabilities across treatment, reuse, and services, deepening our presence in attractive industrial end markets. That brings me to the second area, which we documented in the Watering the New Economy report we released at Davos in January. Water will play an increasingly strategic role in the AI ecosystem. As AI-related infrastructure expands from data centers and semiconductors to power and mining, access to reliable water is becoming increasingly important. We're already supporting data centers through wins with hyperscalers, HVAC OEMs, and infrastructure partners, and this year's revenue is expected to increase by approximately 200%. However, this is only part of the story.

We view data centers as an early indicator of a larger opportunity across the AI ecosystem, where water is increasingly becoming a critical input to infrastructure development and industrial growth. Over time, we see this same value proposition extending into additional verticals such as food and beverage and life sciences, where water quality, reliability, and sustainability are also essential. To align our business with these growth drivers, we have actively reshaped the portfolio, sharpening our focus through more than $400 million of divestitures while acquiring assets that expand our ability to serve customers in high-growth markets. The recently closed TriOS acquisition strengthens the intelligence layer of our portfolio through advanced sensing and water quality capabilities that are highly relevant to industrial customers. We also recently signed an agreement to acquire WaterFleet, which expands our capabilities in mobile water treatment and strengthens our position across AI-related infrastructure markets.

This is a services-led business with recurring revenue, established customer relationships, and strong commercial momentum, including a multimillion-dollar project supporting a hyperscaler's data center build-out in Texas. Importantly, we're not investing ahead of hypothetical demand. We are aligning the portfolio with demand patterns we are already seeing in the market, and where customers are already choosing Xylem to solve increasingly complex water challenges. At the same time, demand in our municipal markets remains healthy, supported by strong infrastructure spending and backlog execution. I'll now turn it over to Bill to take you through the details for Q2 and our updated guidance.

Thanks, Matthew. Please turn to slide five. We're pleased with the momentum we've built in the first half of the year. Our team stayed disciplined despite market volatility and delivered solid results that give us a strong base to build on. Demand remains healthy, with our ending backlog at $5.3 billion, and our book-to-bill for the quarter well above one. This was supported by the Dow order in WSS, as orders were up 41% versus last year, with growth in three of our four segments. Revenue was up 1% in the quarter versus prior year, in line with expectations as strength in key markets offset a 27% decline in China and walkaway revenue of almost 2%. The team's operational discipline delivered quarterly EBITDA margin of 23.3%, up 150 basis points versus the prior year. The improvement was driven by productivity, price, and mix, more than offsetting inflation and lower volume.

Water Infrastructure led the way with strong leverage in North America transport growth. We also achieved record quarterly EPS of $1.46, a 16% increase over the prior year. Net debt to adjusted EBITDA increased to 0.8 times, driven by our opportunistic share repurchases in the quarter. Free cash flow was strong in the quarter, driven by higher net income, partially offset by outsourced water contracts. The teams continue to make progress with our working capital efficiency metrics. Let's turn to slide six. For Measurement and Control Solutions, in the quarter, book-to-bill was below one, but backlog remained at roughly $1.2 billion. Orders were up 2%, driven by continued smart metering demand in Water, with double-digit orders growth, offsetting declines in Electric on difficult comps and project delays. Revenue was down 1%, driven by energy metering demand, mostly offsetting softness in Water.

EBITDA margin of 21.1% was 200 basis points lower than prior year, driven by unfavorable mix, inflation, and volume, offset partly by productivity and price. With recent project delays in Electric metering, we are bringing down our outlook for the MCS full-year performance to low double-digit revenue versus the prior year. The pipeline is strong and long-term electric demand remains healthy, but affordability concerns and a more cautious capital spending environment ahead of upcoming elections have slowed down near-term investment. We continue to win more than our share of the market and expect sustained growth in the years ahead, driven by the ongoing AMI 2.0 refresh cycle. In Water Infrastructure, orders were down 4% in the quarter, driven by continued softness in treatment due to 80/20 in China, offset by strong demand in transport. Revenue was up 3%, driven by transport offsetting softness in treatment related to our walkaway actions.

Double-digit growth in U.S. municipalities more than offset a 40% decline in China. EBITDA margin expansion was outstanding for Water Infrastructure at 480 basis points, with productivity, mix, price, and volume more than offsetting inflation and investments. In Applied Water, orders were up 9% and book-to-bill was well above one, lifted again by data center wins. Data center orders in Q2 were up over 300%. Revenues were up 3% versus the prior year, primarily driven by strength in U.S. commercial buildings, offsetting softness in the residential end market and China. EBITDA margin was slightly below expectations, down 50 basis points year-over-year, driven by inflation and volume, mostly offset by productivity and price. Finally, Water Solutions and Services saw significant orders growth due to its largest order ever in April, an approximately $850 million, 23-year outsourced water project.

Revenue increased 1% year-over-year, driven by capital projects, including the impact of the finalized Dow contract and strength in dewatering. Segment EBITDA margin was 25.3%, up 90 basis points versus the prior year, driven by price, mix, and productivity, offset by inflation and lower volume. Let's turn to slide seven for our updated full year and third quarter guidance. We are narrowing our organic outlook against the prior guide, with MCS electric project delays impacting the near-term outlook. Full-year reported revenue is now expected to be roughly $9.2 billion which delivers revenue growth of approximately 2%, while organic revenue growth will be in the 2%-3%, versus prior guidance of 2%-4%. EBITDA margin is expected to be 23.1%-23.5%, versus the prior guide of 22.9%-23.3%.

This represents 90 basis points-130 basis points of expansion versus the prior year, driven by productivity, volume, and price more than offsetting inflation, as well as investments in the business. Also, there is no material impact to our projected results from recently announced changes in tariffs or tariff refunds. Our strong first half performance, along with the benefits from share repurchases and higher margins, more than offset the revenue headwind from electric metering delays and gives us confidence to raise the EPS range from $5.35-$5.60 to $5.55-$5.70. Cash flow generation was strong in the first half, and we remain on target to achieve our low double-digit free cash flow margin for the year. Drilling down on the third quarter. We anticipate revenue growth will be flat on a reported basis and up roughly 3% organically.

We expect third quarter EBITDA margin to be approximately 23.5%-24%, which is up 30 basis points-80 basis points, driven by price realization, productivity gains, and higher volumes. These results will yield third quarter EPS of $1.42-$1.47. We are exiting the first half of the year with strong demand and in a position of strength. Our balanced outlook reflects our strong commercial position, the durability of our portfolio, and impacts and benefits from our simplification efforts. We also continue to monitor broader market conditions and volatility, including the Middle East conflict, changes in tariffs, and other inflationary pressures. Our expectations for this year remain extremely positive as we build momentum to a strong fiscal year in 2027. With that, please turn to slide eight, I'll turn the call back over to Matthew for closing comments.

Thank you, Bill. Stepping back from the quarter, I think it's important to keep sight of what's driving demand across our markets over the longer term. We continue to see healthy demand for Water Infrastructure investments as the underlying need to modernize and maintain water systems remains strong. At the same time, the growth of AI is making water a more strategic input across a broader ecosystem, driving demand from semiconductors and power generation to mining and other critical industries. Beyond AI, we see similar opportunities emerging across high growth industrial sectors such as food and beverage and life sciences, where water is increasingly central to quality and operational performance. These trends are creating demand opportunities across the markets we serve in reinforcing the value of the capabilities we have been building.

As we position Xylem for the future, we remain focused on strengthening our portfolio, our capabilities, and our leadership team. Recent leadership changes reflect that ongoing focus. I'd like to recognize Meredith and Joe as they take on their new roles, while also thanking Mike for his many contributions to Xylem and wishing him the very best. Across the organization and portfolio, the strategic decisions we're making today are expanding our ability to serve customers, increasing the quality of our growth, and positioning Xylem to create greater value over the long term. Now let's open up the call for your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then one on your telephone keypads. If you are using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please pick up your handset prior to pressing the keys to ensure the best sound quality. To withdraw your questions, you may press star and two. Again, that is star and then one to join the question queue. We'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question today comes from Deane Dray from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead with your question.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Morning, Deane. Hey, Deane. Hey.

Love to put the spotlight on Applied Water and that organic revenue growth of 9%. Nice upside there. I know you've talked about the data center growth and the 300% and the orders, can you just kind of flesh out for us that 9%? What were the key industrial non-municipal drivers there and kind of what the outlook is for the balance of the year?

Yeah, Deane, thanks for the question. Primarily, I would say in Applied Water, it was largely data center driven, although in North America, our commercial building services business has done well across multiple verticals. Data centers remain a very attractive growth area for us, and we expect our exposure to continue to increase over time. Like we said in the prepared remarks, we expect revenue to be up 200% this year. We'll probably be exiting this year about 2% of our revenue tied to data centers. I think also, I just mentioned, and maybe we'll get into it later, our acquisition of WaterFleet, which is not in the Applied Water business but in the WSS segment, also gives us more exposure into that part of the marketplace as well.

Yeah, I did want to put the spotlight on capital allocation, just really balanced here, and we like that WaterFleet deal and its positioning. Maybe just step back and talk about the opportunities in the outsource contracts. I mean, Dow has got a milestone deal for you all, but it does sound like there's more to do, and this was like the whole premise of the Evoqua deal to begin with. What can you talk about in terms of that pipeline for these contracts?

Yeah. We have multiple contracts, but Build-Own-Operates are obviously a big part of that, as well as capital and services. Let me just maybe first say that municipal does remain a source of strength for us and a core part of our business. What's changed is that we've expanded our capabilities and really increased our participation through the Evoqua acquisition, especially in high growth verticals like high tech power, life sciences, and things of that nature. We view it as complementary to municipal. Maybe a couple of examples that I would highlight, Deane, that are in this Build-Own-Operate or capital service type of a deal. We recently won a job in the lithium battery space. We secured a win with the world's largest lithium battery cell manufacturer. We developed a solution to treat the recycling of really a novel wastewater system.

It includes, I would call it, cutting-edge wastewater treatment, and really took the entire treatment train, including our most recent acquisition of Baycom, the Zero Liquid Discharge asset, that's helped us have the complete front to back part of the treatment train. That's a really big win. The second I would point to is a data center in Pennsylvania. We're finding, not all the time, but sometimes, data centers are having to secure additional water outside of muni water through river streams and wells. We're treating settled river water and bringing that into a state-of-the-art facility to make sure that they've got the quantity and the quality of water that they need.

That's great. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Mike Halloran from Baird. Please go ahead with your question.

Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Morning, Mike.

Hey, let's start on the MCS commentary and just help frame how you're thinking about things. The electric piece sounds like there was some push-outs. What's going on there? Any change in thought process from those customers on a medium to long-term horizon? Then maybe contrast that with the water utility side of things, all else equal, what you're seeing more on the water side as we move to the back half, any change on that side and how you think about what that trajectory means for out years?

Yeah, Mike. If we start just, our revenue takedown from four to three on the high end is really all around MCS. That's really directly attributable to the slowdown in electric meter deployments. We talked about affordability concerns or more cautious capital spending environment ahead of upcoming elections, have just slowed down the near-term investment cycle. We've really seen politicians take a hard stand on electricity rate increases, and utilities have pulled back and pocket their short-term investments to compensate. I think, again, we continue to gain share versus competitors as we look at our bid and win rates, and do expect this to be a healthy market in the years ahead. Primarily driven by the ongoing AMI 2.0 refresh. Again, the near-term pullback's creating a little bit of pressure for us. To your point on the water side, we actually continue to see strength.

Order activity's really positive and customer engagement is really constructive. Our funnel is up about 30% versus last year. Water orders have been up double digits in both the first and second quarter. We expect that to continue into the second half, helping offset some of the declines we're going to see on the electric side, and expect water to be up about low single digits for the year with a strong second half.

Thanks for that. Then maybe some thoughts on orders more holistically, and how you're thinking about things from here. The treatment side of things, that seems concentrated overseas and intentional. What's the run rate for the U.S. piece on the infrastructure side? Then maybe just put all this together between the Applied comments that Deane was talking to, some of your 80-20 initiatives, what you just mentioned on the water, timing on the electric, however you want to answer the infrastructure piece. Are we looking at something more normalized as we exit this year from a growth perspective relative to how you think about long-term growth for Xylem?

Yeah. Definitely. Maybe if I started at a high level. Revenue progression through the years is generally in line with the exception of the electric metering delays. We said we're flat in the first quarter. We're up 1% here in the second quarter. Expectations are for three here in the third, then we're going to exit the year in the fourth quarter at mid-single digits. I think we're building momentum leading into next year. If you break it down by segment, obviously Matthew highlighted, again, strength in Applied Water, right? They've had really strong orders consistently with book-to-bill above one for the last several quarters. On top of the data centers, we really see resiliency in the U.S. commercial building space, and expect them to continue to build backlog here in the second half leading into a strong 2027.

To your point, Water Infrastructure, even with the China headwind and some of the 80-20 walk away on the treatment side, we've built backlog in the first half and expect positive orders growth here in the second half. They'll finish the year with positive book-to-bill, and again, with strong momentum leading into next year. Again, with a lot of the 80-20 walk away and the China comp behind us. WSS obviously has had a phenomenal first half of the year, but it's always going to be lumpy. We talked about just the shift in outsourced water and the funnel that's creating across a variety of different end markets.

Really excited about that, the backlog that they're going to end with this year puts us in a strong position. Again, my commentary around MCS, I think we have here a little bit near-term mitigation on the electric side, but water momentum continues to build. We'll see positive book-to-bill in the second half with high single-digit orders growth. I think there's lots of momentum across the organization, and continues to give us confidence in the outlook from a commercial perspective heading into next year.

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thanks, Mike.

Our next question comes from Nathan Jones from Stifel. Please go ahead with your question.

Yeah, good morning. This is Adam Farley on for Nathan. Maybe just following up on some of that commentary, maybe first on Water Infrastructure. Maybe could you speak to the underlying treatment market ex the 80/20 actions that you're doing?

I think positive overall. Even with the 80/20 actions and some of the projects where we've increased price, we've had a very strong win rate. I think the treatment market here in the U.S. has been really positive for that business, and I think we expect that to continue in the second half. A lot of the challenges there, again, relative to China and different decisions we've made on our bidding strategy around tenders in different emerging markets. I think that business has got a lot of momentum here as we progress in the back half.

All right. Thank you for that. Then maybe switching gears. Are you seeing any signs of supply chain tightness anywhere in the portfolio? Do you think there's any need to increase maybe safety stock for electronic components?

It's something we review really monthly in our leadership meeting. I don't think there's anything pressing right now that we already haven't taken action on. Obviously, we look at rare earth. We've got most of our businesses about a year of supply we pulled in from a safety stock perspective. Obviously, we've made some investments. I might have highlighted this on a prior call on chips and wafers, looking to kind of get about six months of supply there just as more of a safety stock buffer. Outside of those two areas, I would say in general, we're pretty balanced and we do review it, like I said, every month.

All right, great. Thank you for taking my questions.

Thanks, Adam. Our next question comes from Andy Kaplowitz from Citigroup.

Please go ahead with your question.

Good morning, everyone. Morning, Andy.

Manville, strong quarter in margin, particularly in Water Infrastructure. Maybe you could just double-click on what were the main drivers of the strong performance there. Did you sort of hit another glide path in terms of 80/20 performance? I know you want to be conservative, but Q3 up 30, 80 basis points, Q2, you did 150. Maybe you can give us some more color on the puts and takes you see for that Q3 margin.

Yeah. If we start with Water Infrastructure, again, they had a phenomenal quarter, and they continue to be the leader in margin expansion for the organization. I think they're definitely seeing increased benefits from their simplification efforts. They've kicked off 80/20 and have been doing this now for over two years. They've done a really good job optimizing their overhead to more effectively and efficiently serve their customers. They've been really purposeful with their go-to-market strategies to be selective on bidding projects where they can create the most value, a little bit to my treatment commentary a little bit earlier. That's weighed a little bit on their orders and sales growth, obviously. That's short-term. I think the focus that they have will help them better lever as they get back into their mid-single-digit growth algorithm exiting the year with positive performance here in Q3 and Q4.

We continue to see margin opportunities within the segment, though. They've made solid progress, and I think they still have operational productivity and things that they're going to be able to leverage. The 80/20 benefits that they've driven on the margin side, you're going to see them inflect on the growth side, particularly in transport, where they've made resource allocation decisions to refocus certain areas of their commercial and engineering teams to drive incremental growth. They did have a little bit more transport mix within the quarter that helped overdrive relative to our expectations. That will balance a little bit, Andy. I think that's part of the Q4 sequential challenge that we'll have from a margin perspective. Overall, still really excited about their margin outlook.

It's helpful. I think we all know that WSS is a bit lumpy, and we talked about the shift toward outsourced water. As you know, Evoqua before you bought it was big in end markets that we've been starting to talk about, like microelectronics, mining, life sciences. Do you see more incremental projects there in general? What are your customers doing and saying about that? WSS overall could continue to improve in growth even outside of outsourced water.

Yeah, Andy, it's Matthew. Like we said, coming into the year, there were some project delays coming from tariffs, and they were creating slower decision-making and really some re-scoping of projects that happened last year that really pushed out that business, some decisions at least probably, I'd say three to six months. Momentum is picking up, and the business will be back at mid-single-digit growth in the second half. We have a very active funnel and a strong backlog position. As noted by, obviously, the Dow win we highlighted on the last call, another large order that we just received a few weeks ago.

With one of the world's largest chemical companies. Long term, we do see accretive growth coming from high growth verticals that mainly sit within the WSS segment. What we're calling high tech, I would say that's kind of defense, semiconductor, data centers, power. Seeing a big pickup in power where the energy mix over the past couple of years has actually expanded versus contracted, which has helped. If you think about the power generation needed for the AI ecosystem over the next several years, I think that business is in a very strong position to take advantage of a lot of nuclear expansion, specifically. Mining and life sciences and food and beverage are other ones that we're really focused on. I think we're really starting to see some momentum, Andy, and we'll exit the year pretty strong in that business.

Great. Appreciate the color. Our next question comes from Scott Davis from Melius Research.

Please go ahead with your question.

I wanted to just talk a little bit about 80/20, and I'm just kind of curious to hear your view on how it evolves as it scales. What I mean by that is that you spent the first couple of years doing kind of basic 80/20. There's a fair amount of walkaway revenues related to that. By the time you get to 2027, though, do you still have walkaway revenues, or are you at the point then where you're back to a more traditional 80/20, where you've got your customers segmented, and that stuff's kind of already gone, right? You're playing offense more than playing defense? If you know what I'm saying?

No, definitely. I think we've highlighted this year, obviously, we've accelerated some of our actions, and this will be the height of our walkaway revenue at close to 2%. I think next year will be significantly lower, just as we've pretty much gone through a majority of the portfolio. I agree kind of like 80/20 as an element of fundamental and operating model for us is taking hold, though. We're kind of midway through, two and a half years into the transformation, and each quarter, we take an additional step at simplifying and embedding it in the culture, right? It's just not a tool set and highlighting walkaway revenue and getting the margin increase from it. It's really how we're going to drive growth longer term.

I think we highlighted some of that conversation just as we've implemented the tool set and areas of focus where businesses are shifting resources and developing strategies to drive growth around underrepresented or under-penetrated areas within U.S. transport or the data center story or mining or outsourced water offerings. We're able to increase our capabilities and the resources we're throwing at those, which I think will be a catalyst for incremental growth as we get into 2027. I think you're exactly right. We're shifting from it being a significant lever from a margin perspective. We're going to wash through the majority of our walkaway revenue here this year, and then next year it's all going to be how it's enabling our growth algorithm.

Okay. That's helpful. Then just switching gears to M&A and potential things to do with your balance sheet. When we've seen some revaluation lower on water assets, obviously public assets, and it's hard to know what's going on in private markets necessarily, but typically they'll follow at some point. Have you seen opportunities out there, or do you have a backlog of opportunities where you feel like the valuations are coming down to attractive enough levels where it makes sense, particularly given the fact you've revalued lower a bit, too?

That's a great question. I think it's a mixed bag. It kind of depends on the types of businesses that you're looking at. Scott, I would say in general, it's probably starting to soften a little bit. We're starting to see some signals, but I think in general, it's not aligned to where the market is.

Okay. Usually isn't, right? Yeah.

Private valuation story. Yeah. Yeah.

They're slow to get the memo.

slow to get the memo. Look, we have a very active funnel. We've talked about deploying $1 billion of capital towards M&A a year. We're tracking to that goal, and we've got a really healthy pipeline. We're excited to continue to deploy capital holistically, but specifically towards M&A, accretive M&A.

Yep, fair enough. Okay, I'll pass it on. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andrew Buscaglia from BNP Paribas.

Please go ahead with your question.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Good morning.

Just wanted to check in some of the more shorter cycle areas within Xylem. Did you see a noticeable pickup as the quarter progressed in some of your more core pump and valve areas?

I missed the first part of the question, sorry.

Just asking if you saw a more noticeable pickup in your more short cycle pump and valve areas as the quarter progressed.

No, I don't think so. Our short cycle exposure for us is primarily within the Applied Water business. That's been fairly consistent on the items outside of the data centers. Really strong in the U.S. Europe kind of bumping along a little bit. Our small resi exposure we have, it was probably the one area of weakness that we'd call out within Applied Water. I think relative to increase in industrial production, not a lot of our business you see an immediate inflection.

Got it. A little bit of confusion on some of your China comments. Just that, we had it in our head, I think, that China was a pretty small portion of your total sales. Can you help us understand the nature of the declines and what your commitment is to China, maybe as you reevaluate or continue to evaluate 80/20 as a strategy?

Yeah. No, I think our commentary with China has been pretty consistent over the last few quarter. It remains a challenging market for us, both on the orders and revenue side. Like we said, Q2 orders were down over 30%, sales were down almost 30%. I think that's primarily reflecting ongoing economic headwinds within Water Infrastructure and Applied Water. Some of that is the broader economic, with the Chinese government investing less on infrastructure and shifting their dollars into AI and the life sciences. Again, we've talked about significant competition within the market that's put pressure. Then again, relative to 80/20 and us being more selective on the quality of business that we're bidding there, kind of stacked up. We frame that as last year was about 3% of overall sales. This year it's going to be about 2%. Again, 1% headwind for total Xylem.

We think it's stabilized a bit. There have been a couple data center wins within the country that have been positive. For the most part, I think it's bottomed out a bit. The second half, I think, will be sequentially similar from a total volume perspective to the first half. The comps will be easier year-over-year. We've right-sized that market. I think we're being selective in the areas that we're investing and trying to target things where we can differentiate with our technology. Again, it's the world's second-largest economy, so it's someplace here in the near term that we want to participate in, but we consistently evaluate that assumption.

Thanks, Bill. Sure. Our next question comes from Joe Giordano from TD Cowen.

Please go ahead with your question.

Hi, good morning. This is Chris Grenga on for Joe. Thanks for taking the questions. The MCS outlook continues to rely on a fairly substantial fourth quarter step-up. Could you elaborate on what you've seen that increases your confidence in the trajectory, particularly given that Q2 growth was relatively modest at 2% organic? Thank you. Yeah. Again, I think the Q2 growth was really strong growth on the water side, offset with some of this electric metering delay.

I think what gives us confidence is we've seen here in the first half a double-digit orders growth on the water side. What we have line of sight to with our flow business and where that's tracking has been strong all year. Conversations we've had with customers on the balance of the projects that we need to see the sequential improvement, we're close to signing. Again, we'll be book-to-bill positive in the second half with orders in the high single-digit range on the water side. Excuse me, overall with double-digit orders growth on the water side. I think all the proof points are there outside of the challenges we're seeing on the electric side.

Thank you. You've highlighted momentum in digital offerings, and we've heard positive feedback around early adoption of Data Lake as utilities are leveraging that base of AMI meters. Could you talk about what you're seeing in customer engagement since the launch of that product, and whether tools like Data Lake are accelerating adoption of higher-value offerings such as Vue and the pathway that you're seeing from metering deployments to recurring software revenue?

Yeah, we definitely have seen a pretty fast pickup in the Vue platform through our joint venture with Idrica out of Valencia, Spain. We've been at this in earnest the past, really, probably two and a half to three years, and we've got significant momentum. We doubled the business last year. We're on pace to grow that business significantly in 2026, probably close to 30%-40% as we sit here today. I would say that as I travel around the world and I talk to lots of different CEOs of municipalities, it solves their biggest pain point. Really, to your point about a Data Lake, they've got several applications that they're trying to manage that are discreet and bespoke, and they want to bring them into a common platform and then put that into a Data Lake so they can drive insights off the data.

That's what really we're coming over the top of their applications to do. We've had some significant wins over the course of the past, really, I'd say three months, that really continue to bolster our position with utilities. This platform is scalable beyond municipal. We are talking to other industrial companies and other verticals where this platform can also scale. We obviously wanted to get rooted in municipal and get momentum there, but also we're looking to expand the platform into the industrial sector as well.

Thanks very much. Thank you.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be concluding today's question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Matthew Pine for any closing remarks.

Thanks for your questions today, and thank you for all that joined. As always, we appreciate your interest in Xylem. All the very best. Take care.

With that, we'll conclude today's conference call. We do thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.