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

Atlas Copco AB

Today 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)
((Jagoda.Darlak@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 40;))