ABB Ltd. (ABBNY) shares jumped more than 5% in European trading Thursday after the company hiked its profitability outlook for 2024.
Meanwhile, for the fiscal Q1 2024, the company said operational EBITA rose by 11% to $1.42 billion, achieving a margin of 17.9%, up from 16.3% the previous year. However, net profit decreased by 13% to $905 million.
Despite these mixed results, both operational EBITA and net profit exceeded analysts’ forecasts, which had anticipated $1.36 billion and $872 million, respectively, according to company-provided consensus estimates.
Revenue slightly increased to $7.87 billion from $7.85 billion a year earlier but did not meet the consensus projection of $8.13 billion.
Order volumes declined by 5% to $8.98 billion.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, ABB expects mid-single-digit year-on-year growth in comparable revenue and projects a slight improvement in the operational EBITA margin from the first quarter.
For the full year 2024, ABB now projects an operational EBITA margin of approximately 18%, an adjustment from its earlier forecast of just above last year’s 16.9%. The company has reaffirmed its revenue growth target of 5% on a comparable basis for the year.
