Carpenter Technology Corp. has maintained leverage below 2x over the past four consecutive quarters, a trend we expect will continue over the next 12-24 months based on a strong earnings improvement. We expect that sustained robust demand from the company?s aerospace and defense markets will spur higher margins and EBITDA as customers prioritize security of supply and continue to sign various long-term agreements at higher prices. Therefore, we raised our rating on Carpenter to ?BB+? from ?BB? and our issue-level rating on the company?s unsecured notes to ?BB+? from ?BB?. Our recovery rating remains ?3?. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Carpenter could likely generate solid earnings and cash flow over the next 12 months, supported by long-term agreements
