Nordson fiscal Q3 2026 sales rose 10.3% to a record $817.7M (11.7% organic) and diluted EPS rose 23% to $2.73, led by 31% organic growth in electronics-focused Advanced Technology Solutions; full-year guidance was raised again.
Revenue
$818M
+10.3% YoY
Net income
$153M
+21.5% YoY
Diluted EPS
$2.73
+23.0% YoY
Operating margin
27.3%
Overview
Nordson makes precision dispensing, coating and inspection equipment: machines that put exact amounts of adhesive, sealant or coating onto packaging, circuit boards and medical devices, plus the tubing and fluid parts that go with them. In fiscal Q3 2026 (the three months to July 31, 2026; Nordson's fiscal year ends October 31), sales hit a record $817.7 million, up 10.3%, and diluted EPS rose 23% to $2.73. Most of the extra growth came from one segment. Advanced Technology Solutions (electronics dispensing plus test and inspection) grew sales 28% and its profit 58%. The larger industrial segment grew more slowly and its margin went down.
Management raised full-year guidance for the second quarter in a row and said backlog (orders received but not yet shipped) was up 35% year over year.
Operating margin is the share of sales left after running the business, before interest and tax. Segment EBITDA is Nordson's own profit measure for each division: earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, and before one-off items.
Where the growth came from
Nordson splits sales growth into three parts. Organic growth comes from the existing businesses. The other two are businesses bought or sold, and currency moves. For the quarter, organic growth was +11.7%. The sale of the medical contract-manufacturing business took away 1.2 points, net of the March 2026 purchase of CapstanAG, a precision-agriculture company. Currency took away 0.2 points. So the underlying business grew faster than the 10.3% headline.
Segment
Q3 FY2026 sales
Q3 FY2025 sales
Organic
Acq./Div.
FX
Total
Segment EBITDA margin (vs. PY)
Industrial Precision Solutions (IPS)
$367.2M
$350.8M
+3.3%
+0.9%
+0.5%
+4.7%
35.4% (37.1%)
Medical & Fluid Solutions (MFS)
$230.5M
$219.5M
+10.6%
-5.6%
—
+5.0%
38.3% (37.9%)
Advanced Technology Solutions (ATS)
$219.9M
$171.3M
+30.9%
—
-2.5%
+28.4%
29.9% (24.3%)
ATS is the growth engine this quarter. The 10-Q credits "strong growth in electronics dispense and test and inspection product lines." Currency cut 2.5 points from reported growth, so the business grew more in local currency than in dollars. Segment EBITDA rose to $65.7M from $41.5M, and the margin gained 5.6 points to 29.9%. The 10-Q attributes this to "robust sales growth and actions taken to improve operations and footprint in prior periods." That means cost cuts and factory consolidation done earlier are now paying off on much higher volume. ATS was 23.1% of sales a year ago and is now 26.9%.
MFS: the headline hides stronger organic growth. Reported sales grew only 5.0%, because the contract-manufacturing business sold last year removed 5.6 points. Without that, organic growth was 10.6%, which the 10-Q attributes to "engineered fluid solutions and medical product lines." Segment EBITDA hit a record $88.3M, a 38.3% margin.
IPS grew slowly and lost margin. IPS is the largest segment at 44.9% of sales. Organic growth of 3.3% came from packaging, industrial coatings, polymer processing and nonwovens, the fabrics used in products such as diapers and filters. But segment EBITDA was flat at $129.9M against $130.1M, and the margin fell 1.7 points to 35.4%. Management blames "continued investment in innovation and select near-term inflationary pressures." This is the one soft spot in the quarter.
By region, Asia Pacific sales rose 22.2% (24.1% organic) to $293.8M, now 36% of the total. That fits the electronics-driven ATS growth, since much electronics assembly happens in Asia. The Americas grew 7.3% organically and Europe 3.2%.
From operating profit to EPS: some items flatter the result, others hold it back
Operating profit grew 18.8%, but part of that comes from a weak comparison. Q3 FY2025 included a $12.2M divestiture charge, a one-time cost of selling the contract-manufacturing business. Without it, last year's operating profit would have been about $200.0M, and this year's growth about 11.5%. That is close to the growth rate in sales.
Below operating profit, items pulled in both directions:
Interest expense fell to $20.8M from $26.3M. Management says debt is lower thanks to strong cash generation. Over nine months Nordson paid down $258M of debt.
Other expense rose to $16.8M from $2.9M. Most of that is a $14.9M non-cash, unrealized loss on minority investments, meaning small stakes in other companies that Nordson records at market value. No cash was spent. This is the main item Nordson removes to get its adjusted EPS.
The tax rate fell to 17.8% from 21.0%. On pre-tax income of $185.9M, the lower rate added about $6M to net income compared with last year's rate.
The share count fell. Diluted shares dropped 1.2% to 56.0M after $159M of buybacks in the first nine months. That is why EPS grew faster (23.0%) than net income (21.5%).
Adjusted EPS of $3.25 (+19%) excludes the investment loss, $19.3M of amortization of acquired intangibles (the write-down over time of assets such as customer relationships gained through acquisitions), and small acquisition-related costs. For judging how the business itself is doing, adjusted EPS is the better measure this quarter. GAAP EPS gained from last year's divestiture charge dropping out but lost from this year's investment loss, and the two roughly offset each other.
Cash flow and balance sheet
Q3 free cash flow (cash from operations minus capital spending) was $236.8M. That is 144% of net income once the investment loss is excluded. For nine months, free cash flow was $530.2M, against $467.3M a year earlier. Year to date, Nordson paid down $258M of debt, bought back $159M of shares and paid $137M in dividends. Total debt, including $192M of commercial paper (short-term corporate borrowing), was about $1.73B at July 31. It was about $2.00B at October 31, 2025.
Takeaway: Nordson is now growing mainly because of electronics. ATS's 31% organic growth and 5.6-point margin gain explain most of this quarter's improvement. IPS, the largest segment, grew only 3% organically and lost 1.7 points of margin. How long the electronics cycle lasts will likely matter more for next year's earnings than anything else in the portfolio.
Outlook
Management raised full-year FY2026 guidance for the second quarter in a row:
Guidance after Q2 (May 2026)
Guidance after Q3 (Aug 2026)
Sales
$2,930M–$3,010M
$3,035M–$3,075M
Adjusted diluted EPS
$11.30–$11.80
$11.80–$12.00
Nine-month sales were $2,228.0M and nine-month adjusted EPS was $8.48. So the new range implies fiscal Q4 sales of roughly $807M–$847M and adjusted EPS of about $3.32–$3.52. At the midpoint, that is a small step up from Q3's $817.7M and $3.25. CEO Sundaram Nagarajan pointed to "backlog and order entry momentum." With backlog up 35%, the Q4 range looks well covered by orders already received, not just by hoped-for new orders.
Our read: The risks are about the mix of businesses, not about demand. First, ATS demand depends on electronics production, which is historically cyclical, and currency already cut 2.5 points from that segment's growth. If electronics production slows, Nordson's growth rate could fall back toward the low- to mid-single digits of IPS. Second, if IPS margins keep falling, that would outweigh the smaller ATS gains, because IPS is still the biggest profit contributor at $129.9M of the $283.9M total segment EBITDA. Management calls the IPS pressures "near-term." FY2027 results will show whether that is true. Lower debt should keep interest costs falling. Minority-investment gains and losses will keep swinging GAAP EPS in ways that have nothing to do with how the business is running.
Source: Nordson Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2026, and the Q3 FY2026 earnings release (Form 8-K Exhibit 99.1, August 19, 2026) for adjusted EPS, backlog, free cash flow and guidance.