Milwaukee-based
Rockwell Automation, a manufacturer of industrial automation and digital transformation products, reported an “encouraging start” to fiscal year 2024 Wednesday, but still fell short of Wall Street expectations.
Analysts estimated Rockwell’s first quarter sales would hit the $2.1 billion mark, but the company only reached $2.05 billion. Rockwell's net income for the first quarter of its fiscal year was $215 million, down 44% compared to $384 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2023
Rockwell’s stock fell 14% Wednesday morning.
During the company’s quarter one earnings call,
Blake Moret, chairman and CEO of Rockwell, explained the manufacturer is still navigating several challenges including high levels of channel inventory and lingering supply chain constraints. The company ended last year with a backlog of $4.1 billion. That backlog decreased by “high single digits,” according to Moret.
Despite these challenges, Rockwell reported a sales increase of 3.6% year-over-year. A series of acquisitions the company completed last year contributed to 1.4% of that growth. In
October, Rockwell acquired Chicago-based Verve Industrial Protection. This followed earlier acquisitions of a Canadian robotics company in
September and an Indian technology consulting company in
March.
"Rockwell had an encouraging start to the fiscal year, with both organic and total sales up low single digits year-over-year," said Moret. "Importantly, we saw an upward inflection in customer order activity, with total orders up double digits sequentially. Q1 orders were up sequentially across all business segments and regions, with particular strength in North America."
Rockwell’s intelligent devices business segment reported a 1% decrease in sales from $936 million last year to $927 million this year. The company’s software and control and lifecycle services segments both saw sales increases of 5.3% and 10.5% respectively.
The company’s adjusted earnings of $2.04 a share were less than the average forecast of $2.63 a share among Wall Street analysts.
