By Anna Peverieri
(Reuters) -French software company Dassault Systemes lowered its annual operating margin growth forecast on Thursday, citing a more volatile market environment due to tariffs.
The group, which sells its software to automakers, plane makers and industrial companies, now sees 2025 operating margin rising by 50-70 basis points, compared to its previous growth expectation of 70-100 bps.
“The introduction of new tariffs has created a more volatile market environment, which could lead to longer decision-making cycles,” chief financial officer Rouven Bergmann said in a statement.
Dassault’s results echoed Swedish peer Hexagon, which issued a profit warning earlier in April. Hexagon warned of lower growth in its key North American and China markets in the last two weeks of March, citing economic uncertainty.
It confirmed its outlook of 6%-8% total revenue growth and 7%-10% earnings per share growth.
Dassault lowered its operating margin outlook to have more flexibility and make necessary investments to support long-term growth, notably in Gen 7, Bergmann said, referring to the group’s new artificial intelligence-enhanced “3DEXPERIENCE” software.
He added that it will help the company navigate an environment which is “more volatile than what we expected when we entered the year.”
The group said its total revenue rose 4% to 1.57 billion euros ($1.78 billion) in the first quarter, limited by declining services revenue.
Analysts were expecting 1.60 billion euros on average, according to a Visible Alpha consensus cited by Morgan Stanley.
Software revenue increased 5% year-on-year to 1.43 billion euros, in line with expectations of 1.44 billion euros.
This division’s growth acceleration was supported driven by aerospace and defense, transport and mobility and high-tech, the group said.
($1 = 0.8817 euros)
(Reporting by Anna Peverieri in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi and Varun H K)
