Atlas Copco misses profit view and repeats market outlook, knocking shares (updated)

Atlas Copco AB

Yesterday 11:11

    (Adds share move in paragraph 1, details from report in
paragraphs 3-4.)
    By Jagoda Darlak
       Oct 22 (Reuters) - Swedish industrial group Atlas Copco
 ATCOa.ST  reported a third-quarter adjusted operating profit
below market expectations and reiterated its near-term market
forecast despite strong orders, sending its shares 7% lower on
Thursday.
    Quarterly operating earnings before items affecting
comparability rose to 10.20 billion Swedish crowns ($1.03
billion) on the back of 15% revenue growth. Analysts were
expecting 10.31 billion crowns on average, LSEG I/B/E/S data
showed. The corresponding margin was unchanged from a year ago
at 21.3%.
    Atlas Copco's order intake rose 29% on a reported basis, or
25% organically, to 52.34 billion crowns. Orders in its vacuum
business jumped 87% to 16.66 billion crowns, driven by strong
demand from the semiconductor industry.
    Orders in the Compressor Technique division, the group's
largest business area, increased by 8%, but its operating margin
fell to 23.6% from 25.3% a year earlier. The unit's order
volumes also declined somewhat from the previous quarter.
     Atlas Copco, which makes a wide range of industrial
products from air treatment systems to construction equipment
and power tools, said it expected customer activity to remain at
the current level in the near term, reiterating the outlook it
gave in the previous quarter.

    (Reporting by Jagoda Darlak in Gdansk, editing by Milla
Nissi-Prussak)
((mailto:Jagoda.Darlak@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 40;))