Honeywell Automation Q2 FY27: PAT +12% YoY to ₹134 Cr, margins slip QoQ, misses Street

Honeywell Automation India's standalone (its only reporting basis — no subsidiaries) Q2 FY27 (quarter ended September 30, 2026) revenue came in at ₹1,223.9 Cr, up 6.5% YoY and a modest 1.6% QoQ, while PAT was ₹133.7 Cr, up 11.9% YoY. Sequentially, though, profit fell 11.3% from ₹150.7 Cr in Q1 FY27 and EPS slipped to ₹151.17 from ₹170.45. Against the Street consensus going into the print — roughly 36% EPS growth and PAT near ₹200 Cr, per our pre-result preview — the actual 11.9% YoY EPS growth is a clear miss, not a beat or an in-line print. The margin picture is mixed depending on which base you use. Operating margin (EBITDA/revenue) expanded to 12.67% from 11.45% a year ago (+122 bps YoY) and net margin rose to 10.92% from 10.01% (+91 bps YoY) — but both compressed sharply versus Q1 FY27's 14.32% OPM and 12.05% NPM. Total expenses grew 5.1% YoY to ₹1,085.1 Cr, broadly tracking revenue, so the sequential squeeze reflects cost absorption against a nearly flat quarter-on-quarter top line rather than any one-off charge; there were no exceptional items in either the current or year-ago quarter. No management press release or concall commentary was available in our records for this result, and the company has no formal guidance on record, so there is no outlook to grade the print against beyond the Street's own pre-result numbers. The quarter's corporate calendar — the October 27 board meeting that approved these results, the trading-window closure from September 28, and the July 29 AGM — was procedural, with no capex, order-win or management-change announcements tied to the numbers. Our pre-result preview had framed HONAUT as riding a 'margin-led recovery' with analyst consensus split (1 Strong Buy, 1 Buy, 2 Hold, 1 Sell; median target ₹39,725) and a live debate on whether its ~34x trailing P/E is justified on flat revenue growth; this quarter's modest 6.5% YoY revenue growth and PAT growth trailing the 36% consensus EPS call does little to settle that debate in the bulls' favour. Going into Q3 FY27, the key markers are whether OPM can recover back toward the 14%+ handle seen in Q1 FY27 from this quarter's 12.67%, and whether revenue growth — 1.8% in Q1 FY27, 6.5% here — breaks out of the low-to-mid-single-digit band of the past two quarters.