Since 2021, we have increased our focus on collaboration and innovation, while leveraging the critical mass of One Curtiss-Wright across the enterprise, to identify and unlock new sources of value for our customers.

Further, our team has proven extremely capable of managing through the global supply chain challenges and inflationary impacts on our business, strengthening our leading market positions and driving increased efficiency across our global operations which remain critical to the Company’s long-term success.

As evidenced by our strong financial performance in fiscal year 2021, we continue to build upon on our strong foundations of operational excellence and financial discipline, which enabled us to achieve a record 17% adjusted operating margin in 2021 and deliver record returns to our shareholders. Curtiss-Wright delivered solid operational performance again in 2022 as we achieved several new financial records, including full year sales, profitability, and new orders. These results showcased the talent of our team, the strength of our combined portfolio, and our execution of the Pivot to Growth strategy.

I remain confident that Curtiss-Wright is well-positioned to deliver strong, profitable growth, and we look forward with confidence to deliver on the next phase of our journey.”

Lynn M. Bamford
Chair and Chief Executive Officer

ABOUT CURTISS-WRIGHT

Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) has a long history with its roots dating back to Orville and Wilbur Wright's first flight in 1903, and Mr. Glenn Curtiss, the father of naval aviation. In 1929, the companies founded by these three great aviation pioneers, the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and Wright Aeronautical Corporation, merged to form the largest aircraft company at the time, Curtiss-Wright Corporation.

We have continued on the path of innovation and advanced engineering, and have applied that expertise to a number of critical applications in high-performance markets. Our success has resulted in a world-renowned reputation for performance, long-standing customer relationships and significant growth and profitability in the markets in which we compete.

Today, we are a global, integrated provider of highly engineered, technologically advanced products and services. Our revenues are generated by providing our critical solutions through three segments: Aerospace & Industrial, Defense Electronics and Naval & Power, which support several of the largest, most vital industries in the world.

PIVOT TO GROWTH STRATEGY

Our new Pivot to Growth strategy presented during our May 2021 Investor Day focuses on maximizing revenue and operating income growth for our shareholders. Since early 2021, we have implemented numerous steps under this new strategy, including the simplification of our story and business model where we transitioned to a new and more cohesive segment and end market structure. This, in turn, positions us to further unlock shareholder value.

Curtiss-Wright is an integrated business that provides highly engineered products, solutions and services with two-thirds of our sales to Aerospace & Defense (A&D) markets, as well as critical technologies in demanding Commercial Power, Process and Industrial markets.

Importantly, Curtiss-Wright is differentiated because we have strength in the combined portfolio benefitting from long-term stability in our defense businesses and agility in our commercial businesses.

Our Pivot to Growth strategy is centered on a renewed drive for top line acceleration through both organic and inorganic sales growth, building on the strengths across our A&D and Commercial markets, deepening and expanding our customer relationships by driving One Curtiss-Wright to the customer, and maintaining our disciplined approach to acquisitions.

We see strong growth opportunities in each of our segments, not simply in the short-term, but for years to come, given the significant potential to build upon crossover technologies that leverage the strength of our combined portfolio where, for example, we have critical technologies in our commercial markets which can be pulled through into our defense markets to meet our customers’ future needs.

We have continued opportunities within our new Operational Growth Platform for margin expansion while driving continued investments in Research and Development (R&D) to fuel the innovation engine. Further, this new platform builds upon our strong track record of operational excellence and financial discipline, and refocuses our efforts to drive profitable growth which will continue to play a key role in driving Curtiss-Wright’s robust cash flow generation.

At our 2021 Investor Day event, we also established new long-term targets for the three-year period ending in 2023:

• 5 - 10% Total Revenue CAGR (inclusive of 3 - 5% organic growth)
• Operating Income Growth > Revenue Growth (which implies continued Operating Margin expansion)
• Maintaining Top Quartile Operating Margin (relative to our peers)
• 10% (or Greater) Adjusted diluted EPS CAGR, and
• Greater than 110% average Free Cash Flow conversion.

In support of our new strategy, we remain focused on driving our operations to achieve financial excellence and will utilize our strong balance sheet to execute disciplined capital allocation, to achieve top quartile performance as compared to our peer group and enhance shareholder value.

DISCIPLINED AND BALANCED CAPITAL ALLOCATION STRATEGY

We continue to utilize our strong and healthy balance sheet to implement a disciplined and balanced approach to capital allocation.

As we stated at our investor day, acquisitions have been and will continue to remain our highest priority for capital allocation under our Pivot to Growth strategy, supplemented by continued steady distributions to our shareholders, most often through share repurchases, as well as steady reinvestment in our business.

We have a strong track record of successful acquisitions, supplementing our existing portfolio with critical adjacent technologies to enhance our customer offering, with five of our last six transactions primarily serving our A&D markets. We utilize a stringent process whereby each property must be the right strategic and financial fit to help grow our top- and bottom-line faster – while not allowing for long-term deterioration of our financial metrics.

In 2021, we firmly delivered on our commitment to drive returns to our shareholders by completing record annual share repurchases of $350 million, including opportunistically deploying our capital to buybacks, and remain committed to ongoing share repurchases while also steadily increasing our dividend in alignment with our long-term sales growth.

With our continued focus on working capital and strong free cash flow generation, we concluded last year with approximately $1.7 billion of borrowing capacity, providing the financial flexibility that will enable us to pursue our long-term growth strategies.

Looking ahead, we have line of sight to achieve our 3-year financial targets for 2023, and through our Pivot to Growth strategy, we will deliver exceptional, long-term value to all of our stakeholders.