Otis Worldwide
Q2 2023 Earnings Call
Jul 26, 2023, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to Otis second-quarter 2023 earnings conference call. This call is being carried live on the Internet and recorded for replay. Presentation materials are available for download from Otis' website at www.otis.com. I'll now turn it over to Michael Rednor, senior director of investor relations.
Michael Rednor -- Senior Director, Investor Relations
Thank you, Liz. Welcome to Otis' second-quarter 2023 earnings conference call. On the call with me today are Judy Marks, chair, CEO, and president; and Anurag Maheshwari, executive vice president and CFO. Please note, except where otherwise noted, the company will speak to results from continuing operations excluding restructuring and significant non-recurring items.
A reconciliation of these measures can be found in the appendix of the webcast. We also remind listeners that the presentation contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Otis' SEC filings, including our Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, provide additional details on important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Judy.
Judy Marks -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Mike, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. We hope everyone listening is safe and well. Starting with the second-quarter highlights on Slide 3. Otis delivered a strong second quarter and a successful first half of the year.
In Q2, we grew organic sales high-single digits in both segments, expanded adjusted operating profit margin 20 basis points, and achieved 7% adjusted EPS growth. This performance again demonstrates the strength of our strategy and our ability to execute and deliver. We have momentum going into the second half and beyond, as new equipment share was up slightly in the quarter and up about 50 basis points in the first half, we grew our maintenance portfolio 4.2%, and continue to grow our new equipment and modernization backlogs. We generated $409 million in free cash flow in the quarter, and returned $175 million to shareholders through share repurchases, taking year-to-date repurchases to $350 million.
From an innovation standpoint, this quarter we launched our latest elevator in North America the Gen3 Core, designed specifically to address the needs of customers in the large two to six-storey building segment. Gen3 Core is built off the proven design and flat-belt technology of Otis' Gen2 family, while also being equipped with Otis ONE, our IoT platform. Gen3 Core will be manufactured in Florence, South Carolina, and sales will begin this fall. Here are some exciting customer highlights from the second quarter.