NEW YORK, June 29, 2026, 12:09 EDT
- Nasdaq was trading at the time. Regular hours for Nasdaq are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
- Honeywell Aerospace NASDAQ:HONA started trading on its own after spinning off from Honeywell Technologies NASDAQ:HON.
- HONA joined both the S&P 500 and S&P 100 on day one, giving the fresh aerospace and defense stock instant index buying.
- HONA had a $71.76 billion market cap, putting it higher than Vistra NYSE:VST but under Constellation Energy NASDAQ:CEG and Vertiv Holdings NYSE:VRT. All three are plays on data-center power and equipment.
Honeywell Aerospace NASDAQ:HONA dropped a fresh angle for industrials on Monday, at a moment when the data-center trade started to look more mixed to investors.
HONA jumped 7% at the open in its first day on Nasdaq, opening at $236.78 after closing at $221.01 in when-issued trading last week, Reuters reported. The stock last traded at $226.45 as of 12:08 p.m. EDT, with market value at $71.76 billion and shares moving between $213.44 and $239.98 so far.
Timing is in focus. According to Reuters, AI spending worries have put more pressure on the market after last week’s drop pulled down semiconductor stocks and Magnificent Seven names. Ben Snider, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs Group NYSE:GS, said the S&P 500 is up 21% over the last 12 months “driven entirely by earnings.” Reuters
Power and equipment stocks are one way into the data-center trade. Last week, Reuters said Goldman Sachs sees U.S. data-center electricity needs jumping to 66 gigawatts by 2027, up from 31 gigawatts in 2025.
| Company | Market read | Market value | P/E | Latest move |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Honeywell Aerospace NASDAQ:HONA | Fresh aerospace, defense spin from Honeywell | $71.76 bln | 28.2 | -2.1% |
| Vertiv Holdings NYSE:VRT | Data center equipment bellwether | $119.17 bln | 76.4 | Flat |
| Constellation Energy NASDAQ:CEG | Data center electricity angle | $93.64 bln | 26.7 | -1.8% |
| Vistra NYSE:VST | Data center electricity play | $55.98 bln | 27.4 | +0.2% |
This table isn’t tracking sectors—it’s about how capital is allocated. HONA’s market cap was already higher than Vistra and about 60% of Vertiv, with a straightforward P/E ratio close to the power companies and much lower than Vertiv.
| Aerospace and defense stock | Market value | P/E | Latest move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Honeywell Aerospace NASDAQ:HONA | $71.76 bln | 28.2 | fell 2.1% |
| GE Aerospace NYSE:GE | $389.97 bln | 45.2 | up 1.3% |
| RTX NYSE:RTX | $253.30 bln | 35.3 | rose 0.04% |
| Lockheed Martin NYSE:LMT | $116.33 bln | 24.4 | slipped 0.6% |
HONA comes into the sector well below GE Aerospace and RTX in size, and trades at a lower P/E than both. Lockheed Martin is cheaper by P/E. Investors have to ask if HONA, on its own, can catch up on growth without spending down cash on supply chain problems.
Honeywell Technologies’ spin-off set up scale right away for the new stock. Shareholders got one HONA share for every two HON shares they owned as of the record date. S&P Dow Jones Indices said HONA is set to join the S&P 500 on June 29. Conagra Brands NYSE:CAG will drop from the index and will join the S&P SmallCap 600 before trading starts on June 30.
Honeywell said HONA opens with over 36,000 workers and a customer list topping 10,000. CEO Jim Currier said it’s “the start of a new era.” Honeywell
Currier told Reuters the company’s priority for capital isn’t payouts. “We have so much to make,” he said. He pointed to spending on factories and suppliers as key to driving returns. Reuters
Management faces a tough bar. Reuters said HONA is looking for sales to grow 7%-9% this year, with EBIT between $4.6 billion and $4.7 billion and free cash flow of $1 billion to $1.5 billion in the second half. The company is also targeting $6.5 billion in adjusted earnings and over $4 billion in free cash flow by 2030.
The $71.76 billion valuation puts the stock at almost 11 times its 2030 adjusted earnings target and just under 18 times its free cash flow goal for 2030. If you annualize the second-half 2026 cash-flow forecast, the multiple lands between 24 and 36. That’s the math investors used for Monday’s debut.
Defense is opening a new door for HONA. Reuters said HONA plans to put $500 million into a Pentagon deal with RTX and Lockheed Martin for precision-guided munitions. Currier told Reuters this kind of agreement would have been tough under the old conglomerate structure.
The execution risk is the main bear argument. RBC’s Ken Herbert said HONA trailed its rivals in aftermarket growth before, blaming “execution and supply chain challenges” at Honeywell. He said HONA could get a boost in aftermarket pricing with stronger execution and by leaning into retrofit, migration and upgrade work. Reuters
