How are stocks set-up heading into results? The Cap Goods sector is up c8% over the last three months with the worst performing stocks in our UK coverage roughly flat and the best performers up c20%. Over that same time, Cons. estimates have hardly budged. The only exceptions are Spirax-Sarco (where Cons. has made steep cuts to organic growth and margin forecasts) and Coats Group (where Cons. has cut its organic sales growth assumptions). Valuation for most of our coverage appears undemanding when compared to their respective trading ranges (L10Y average; 2015-2019 average; c10/5% discount on average) again except for Spirax (-), which screens as being valued quite richly for the earnings risk we still see. What do we expect out of results? We think almost all our UK Cap Goods companies will be able to broadly meet Cons. earnings expectations for the reporting period in question except for Halma, which we expect to miss. Spectris and Vesuvius are both likely to deliver c4% H2 adjusted profit beats. Of course, more weight will be placed on the outlook messages that our companies will provide. Again, we think in most cases 2024 outlook messages will be supportive of current expectations. Exceptions include Spirax, where we believe guidance could catalyse another downgrade at Watson-Marlow and ETS, and Weir Group where we believe messaging may lead to Cons. modelling a slightly higher margin for 2024. How do we view risk-reward? We think risk-reward is negative for Halma (=) and Spirax (-) and Smiths (=). We think Halma''s trading update will catalyse Cons. downgrades as the margin recovery in Environmental and Analysis is scaled back. We expect Spirax''s guidance to call into question the top line recovery Cons. models for W-M and the margin progression modelled for ETS. At Smiths, we expect the print to trigger H2 downgrades as Cons questions the HoH growth modelled at Flex-Tek and Interconnect. We think risk-reward is positive for Weir (+)....