nVent announced 4Q 2025 and full year 2025 results on February 6. The fourth quarter performance included record sales and backlog, and new product introductions while acquisitions performed ahead of expectations. Sales were about $1.07 billion, up 42% y-o-y, with organic sales growth of about 24% and the rest from acquisitions and a small foreign currency tailwind. Data center sales of ~$1 billion, grew >50% and increased about 40% organically. Adjusted operating income was $210 million, up about 33%, with return on sales (adjusted operating margin) of 19.7%

For 2025 overall, nVent reported about $3.9 billion of sales, up roughly 30% (about 13% organic), adjusted operating income of $786 million with a 20.2% margin. Management characterized 2025 as a “record year” and positioned nVent as a higher‑growth infrastructure‑focused company following portfolio shifts (including divesting thermal management and leaning into data‑center and power‑management solutions).

Infrastructure was the standout vertical, with organic sales up roughly 50–70% in Q4, driven by exceptional growth in AI and cloud data centers; year‑end backlog reached about $2.3 billion (roughly triple the prior year). Industrial grew high single digits and commercial/residential grew low single digits, while geographically the Americas were up about 30–45% and Europe up high single digits; Asia‑Pacific declined.

Acquisitions (including EPG and others) added roughly $126 million to Q4 sales, contributing about 17 points of the 42% growth, and performed ahead of expectations.

Inflation of nearly $55 million dollars in Q4—including more than $40 million from tariffs alone —pressured margins; management noted that price plus productivity offset these cost headwinds, but mix, higher investments, and incentives kept return on sales slightly below internal expectations

Two Segments for nVent

nVent operates in two segments:

• Systems Protection – which had Q4 sales of $737 million, up 58%, and 34% organic. The segment income was up 49% to $149 million (return on sales, however, was 20.3%, down 120 bps y-o-y from inflation/investments). This was led by Infrastructure, including strong data centers order and backlog growth. Americas region growth was up 45% led by data centers.
• Electrical Connections – which had Q4 sales of $330 million, up 15% and up 8% organic. The segment income was up 8%to $91 million (however, return on sales was 27.6%, down 180 bps y-o-y mainly inflation). Growth was driven by Infrastructure and Industrial end markets with Infrastructure up ~25%, industrial mid-single digits, commercial/residential low single digits; and the EPG acquisition adding 6 points.

nVent highlighted strong utility performance within its Infrastructure vertical during Q4 2025 earnings, positioning it as a key growth contributor alongside data centers. Power utilities represented ~15% of nVent’s total portfolio by year-end 2025 (up from lower levels previously), with solid double-digit growth driven by grid modernization, renewables integration, and electrification projects. Management noted utilities as part of the ~70% organic growth in Systems Protection’s Infrastructure vertical, alongside ~50%+ data-center sales surge, emphasizing broad-based strength beyond just hyperscalers.

nVent Electric launched 86 new products across 2025, contributing about 10 percentage points to total sales growth for the year, with new product vitality at 27%. Specifically, the modular liquid cooling platforms showcased at SC25 (Supercomputing conference), including row-based CDUs, next-gen PDUs, AC/DC rack CDUs—designed for scalability and high heat loads, with strong customer reception and Q1–Q2 2026 ramp. These innovations target AI data centers, collaborating with NVIDIA/chip makers on 2030 roadmaps for flexibility (e.g., one new CDU handling prior two-unit loads).

Guidance

NVent’s 2026 sales guidance is for another year of double-digit growth powered by data centers and infrastructure, with an increase of 15% to 18%, or 10% to 13% growth in organic sales. In addition, nVent estimates reported sales for the first quarter of 2026 to be up 34% to 36%, or 17% to 19% on an organic basis. nVent plans for price and productivity to offset inflation, including tariffs, and explicitly budgets around 80 million dollars of incremental tariff costs in 2026, weighted to the first half.

Management noted secular tailwinds in electrification, sustainability, and digitalization, with price and productivity offsetting inflation, including tariffs. Drivers of the 2026 outlook include strong backlogs in data centers and power utilities, investments in new products, and capacity and digital.

Analyst Concerns

Shareholders raised concerns primarily around margin pressure from tariffs and inflation, the sustainability of explosive data-center growth, and acquisition integration risks. Multiple questions focused on Q4 return on sales of 19.7% (down 120–180 bps YoY in segments) despite 24% organic growth, with specific probes into the nearly $55 million inflation hit—including over $40 million from tariffs—and whether 2026’s budgeted $80 million tariff costs risked further erosion if duties escalated.

Management acknowledged mix shift, growth investments, and incentive comp as additional drags but stressed price-plus-productivity fully offset inflation.

Investors pressed on whether tripled backlog ($2.3 billion) and 50–70% infrastructure growth signaled multi-year secular tailwinds or near-term hyperscaler capex peak, asking for visibility into order cadence, cancellation risks, and non-data-center contributions amid macro slowdown fears. CEO Beth Wozniak emphasized broad-based acceleration across AI/cloud data centers, utilities, and industrial, with 86 new products adding 10 points to sales and portfolio shifts (EPG acquisition, thermal divestiture) now positioning infrastructure at 45% of sales.