Belden Inc.

Q2 revenue was $750 million, up 12% year over year and above the high end of guidance ($735 million to $750 million). Organic growth was 8%. Orders were $836 million, up 19% year over year, and book-to-bill was 1.11x. Adjusted gross profit was $297 million, up 14%, with adjusted gross margin of 39.6%. Adjusted EBITDA was $146 million, up 28%, with EBITDA margin of 19.5%. Adjusted EPS was $2.34, up 24% from $1.89 a year ago. The quarter included a net EPS benefit of approximately $0.25 from expected recovery of IEEPA tariffs, partially offset by new tariffs. For Q3 2026, management expects revenue of $950 million to $970 million, GAAP EPS of $0.69 to $0.84, and adjusted EPS of $2.15 to $2.30, which they said implies 6% to 8% organic growth and 9% to 17% adjusted EPS growth year over year.

Ashish Chand framed the quarter as the strongest in company history and emphasized that Belden is evolving into a full-stack networking and automation platform spanning passive infrastructure, switching, wireless and cloud software. He repeatedly pointed to the strategic value of RUCKUS, saying it expands Belden’s ability to serve converged IT/OT customers and accelerates the company’s solutions mix and cross-sell potential. His tone was very confident, with particular emphasis on AI infrastructure, hyperscale data centers and Physical AI as major growth vectors.

Jeremy Parks focused on the financial outperformance and the shape of the quarter’s margins. He cited adjusted gross profit of $297 million, adjusted gross margin of 39.6%, adjusted EBITDA of $146 million and EBITDA margin of 19.5%, while noting incremental EBITDA margins above 30% excluding tariff refunds and copper pass-throughs. On the balance sheet, he said Belden ended Q2 with $349 million in cash, net leverage of 1.7x and trailing 12-month free cash flow of $212 million; after RUCKUS closes, leverage is expected to rise to about 3.9x at the end of Q3 before declining to 3.6x or below by end-2026, 2.9x by end-2027 and 1.5x by end-2029, supported by more than $500 million of free cash flow over the next 18 months.

Analysts pressed on the AI data center strategy, especially the new white-space win versus prior gray-space focus. Management said the goal is to win both and then expand each relationship across white space and gray space, citing standardized architecture, reliable supply chain execution and differentiated fiber/connectivity products as the edge. Questions on RUCKUS centered on Wi-Fi 7 adoption, margin contribution and competitive positioning; management said Wi-Fi 7 is mid-cycle in enterprise but still early in industrial use, that RUCKUS remains a high-single-digit growth business, and that its value proposition is strongest in high-density, high-interference environments and when combined with Belden’s industrial network stack.