Al Root

A booming AI business wasn't enough to overcome weak housing markets for air-conditioner maker Carrier Global.

On Thursday, Carrier announced fourth-quarter earnings per share of 34 cents from sales of $4.8 billion. Wall Street was looking for earnings per share of 36 cents from sales of $5 billion.

A year ago, Carrier reported EPS of 54 cents from sales of $5.1 billion.

Some of its businesses, like data center cooling, are booming. Commercial orders for heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning were up 50% in the fourth quarter. Still, it wasn't enough to offset residential market challenges. Carrier's North American climate sales declined 17% year over year.

"We continue to control the controllables, reducing discretionary costs and building backlog in our long-cycle businesses to mitigate residential market challenges," said CEO David Gitlin in a news release.

Investors just seem to want growth. Shares were down 6.8% at $59.25 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up less than 0.1%.

For 2026, management expects "flat to low-single-digit" revenue growth and earnings per share of about $2.80. Wall Street expects sales growth of about 3% and earnings per share closer to $2.90.

Free cash flow is expected to be about $2 billion. Analysts are projecting $2.3 billion.

Results and guidance look light, and investors wanted a little more.

Coming into Thursday trading, Carrier stock was down about 2% over the past 12 months, trailing the S&P 500 by about 15 percentage points.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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February 05, 2026 08:06 ET (13:06 GMT)

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