(Reuters) -Swedish industrial group Atlas Copco on Tuesday reported a fourth-quarter operating profit above market expectations and said it saw no changes to customer activity in the short term.
The maker of air treatment systems, construction gear and power tools had said it expected the near-term customer activity to weaken somewhat when it reported Q3 results in October.
The market has been awaiting a recovery in the semiconductor space, as it could help Atlas Copco’s vacuum business which delivers assembly components for major semiconductor equipment makers like ASML.
“Orders for vacuum equipment to the semiconductor industry remained largely at the same levels as the previous year, while the demand for industrial vacuum equipment continued to soften,” Atlas Copco said in the earnings statement.
Its order intake grew 8%, or 4% on an organic basis, to 39.7 billion Swedish crowns ($3.6 billion) in the fourth quarter.
Operating profit before items affecting comparability was stable at 10 billion crowns in the same period, while analysts were expecting 9.67 billion on average, LSEG’s IBES data showed.
“The earnings beat was driven by Industrial and Power and despite Vacuum coming in weaker,” J.P.Morgan analysts said in a note, adding that currency exchange effects also offered a bigger support in the quarter than they had expected.
Asked about the potential tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump, CEO Vagner Rego told Reuters it was too early to estimate their impact on the business.
“What I can say is that we do have 18 production facilities in the U.S. that we can scale up if we feel the need,” he added.
Atlas Copco proposed a dividend of 3.00 crowns per share to be paid for 2024, up from 2.80 crowns distributed last year.
The company’s shares rose as much as 4.7% shortly after the results publication at 1100 GMT, but they shed those gains to trade around 3% lower by 1516 GMT.
($1 = 11.0024 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Elviira Luoma in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi)
