Infrared imaging drives record sales and earnings at Teledyne

Sensing giant Teledyne Technologies has increased its 2026 sales expectations for the third time this year, after once again posting record-breaking figures for revenues and earnings in the latest quarter.

At $1.68 billion, total sales for the three months ending September 27 were up nearly 10 per cent on the same period last year, while pre-tax income of $347 million rose more than 20 per cent.

The California-headquartered company’s digital imaging division - which includes such well-known industry brands as FLIR, Dalsa, and e2v - was largely responsible for that momentum, accounting for $903 million sales, a rise of 15 per cent.

Long-time executive chairman Robert Mehrabian said in an investor call discussing the latest figures: “Our third quarter sales and operating earnings were the strongest in Teledyne's history. For the third quarter in a row, we are raising our full-year 2026 sales and earnings guidance.”

Inflationary effects

Teledyne reported that applications in space, drone, and counter-drone platforms were driving particular demand, leading to higher sales of infrared imaging detectors, components and subsystems for both defense and commercial applications.

“Each of our major commercial imaging businesses, such as industrial vision sensors and systems, and healthcare, increased year-over-year,” Mehrabian added. “For all of Teledyne, orders exceeded sales every quarter over the last three years, and [our] funded backlog is now nearly $5.3 billion.”

Company CEO George Bobb also told investors: “Sales of infrared detectors for space-based imaging increased more than 25 per cent. As did revenue from infrared subsystems and cameras for our customers' unmanned air systems and unmanned maritime surface vehicles.”

While Teledyne’s instrumentation and electronics businesses are growing at a much slower rate than that, the company’s executive team is still expecting overall sales to jump more than 8 per cent on the full-year 2025 figure, to reach just over $6.6 billion. Back in January, they had pencilled in an expected rise of only 4 per cent.

Mehrabian also indicated that strong demand for PCBs and other basic electronic components from the data center sector was impacting availability for other users, with prices rising as a result.

Following the company update, Teledyne’s NYSE-listed stock price held steady at around $640, equivalent to a market capitalization in the region of $30 billion.