(Feb 12): Siemens AG raised its outlook after demand for factory automation products boosted returns and orders including for data centres rose.
The Germany industrial company expects basic earnings per share of as much as €11.10 (US$13.17, or $16.62) for fiscal 2026, up from a high of €11 per share, it said Thursday.
While confirming other targets, Siemens sees full-year comparable revenue growth in the upper half of a range of 6% to 8%. For the first quarter, Siemens beat analyst expectations for its core industrial business.
Siemens is benefitting from its move into industrial software and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. First-quarter profit in the Digital Industries unit, which makes factory software and automation products, jumped 37%. Revenue rose 14% in China, the strongest among listed regions, pointing to a potential recovery.
Demand from data centres in the “United States is very strong,” chief executive officer Roland Busch said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he sees little risk of a bubble. Busch sees “very, very strong order intake” indicating “how dynamic, how fast AI is hitting”.
Busch is reaping the results of a repositioning of Siemens towards higher-margin, software-based offerings that target industrial and pharmaceutical sectors, spending a combined US$15 billion on buying Dotmatics and Altair Engineering Inc. Siemens shares have gained more than a fifth over the past year, and last month briefly overtook SAP SE as Germany’s most valuable listed company.
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Data centre demand fuelled record new orders in the Smart Infrastructure division, which provides building infrastructure. Orders in the US increased by 54% in the first quarter. The company expects the unit’s revenue growth rate and profit margin in the upper half of its forecast.
On Thursday, Siemens reiterated that foreign-exchange headwinds will “strongly burden” profit in the industrial business this fiscal year, after warning in November about the weaker dollar’s impact on its business.
It also said that it expects a stabilising economic environment and stable growth.
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First-quarter orders rose 10% on a comparable basis to €21.4 billion, while profit in the industrial business jumped 15% to €2.9 billion, beating expectations.
Siemens’ higher outlook for basic earnings per share relates to net income before purchase price allocation accounting, so-called EPS pre PPA.
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