Siemens and the energy businesses on which it is increasingly dependent suffered from a continuing weak oil price, which has led many equipment makers to halt investments, and depressed profits at some Siemens operations including plant engineering unit Process Industries and Drives.
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“My global team [.] delivered excellent performance, especially with regard to growth, in an increasingly hard market environment”, said Siemens President and CEO Joe Kaeser, in a statement.
Industrial profit climbed 20 percent from past year to 2.19 billion euros.
That compares with a decline in sales and orders at Swiss engineering group ABB, a 16 percent drop in new orders at US rival General Electric and a sales forecast cut by USA industrial automation provider Rockwell.
Siemens said it raised its earnings per share outlook for the full October-to-September financial year from a range of €6.00 to €6.40 to a higher, but narrower, range of €6.50 to €6.70.
“We are leaders in growth at present but there is still a great deal to do”, Kaeser told reporters on a conference call.
MUNICH-German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG on Thursday raised its guidance for its fiscal year 2016, even as net profit for the third quarter remained flat year over year.
The company’s group profit margin was up, at 10.8%, compared with 9.5% a year ago, helped by improvements at the power and gas, wind and energy management units.
“The Q3 report was better than expected”, DZ Bank analyst Alexander Hauenstein, who rates Siemens “buy”, wrote in a note.
Siemens shares were the best performers on the Frankfurt DAX index of leading German companies on Thursday morning, gaining nearly 3.0 percent by just after 0700 GMT.
“Disorder is the new world order”, he said.
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Order intake rose 12 percent in China, 11 percent in the United States and 2 percent in Europe on a comparable basis.
