Atlas Copco's Earnings Fall Short, Customer Activity to Decline
(Reuters) -Swedish industrial group Atlas Copco on Tuesday reported a first-quarter operating profit below market expectations and said it expects customer activity to weaken somewhat in the short term.
The maker of air treatment systems, construction gear and power tools had previously said in January that it expected customer activity in the near term would remain at the current level.
Atlas Copco's order intake grew 2% to 46.60 billion Swedish crowns in the first quarter, but was unchanged on an organic basis.
It said orders had fallen in Europe and North America, where the latter accounted for slightly more than a quarter of its 2024 revenue and order intake.
"Overall demand for Atlas Copco Group's equipment and services remained at the same level as the previous year," the group said in a statement.
Operating profit before items affecting comparability fell to 8.87 billion Swedish crowns ($924.06 million) for the January-March period, while analysts were expecting 9.36 billion on average, LSEG data showed.
Shares in the company were down 4.3% at 0943 GMT, after being roughly flat ahead of the report.
(Reporting by Jagoda Darlak, editing by Kirsten Donovan)
