Shares of Rockwell Automation Inc.
ROK,
climbed 3.6% toward a near one-year high in premarket trading Thursday, after the industrial automation and information services company beat fiscal first-quarter profit by a wide margin and raised its full-year outlook, citing continued strong demand and an improving supply chain environment. Net income for the quarter to Dec. 31 rose to $384.0 million, or $2.46 a share, from $241.5 million, or $2.14 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share of $2.46 beat the FactSet consensus of $1.88. Sales grew 6.7% to $1.98 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $1.92 billion. Free cash flow was $42.1 million, compared with negative $49.1 million a year ago. For fiscal 2023, the company raised its guidance ranges for adjusted EPS to $10.70 to $11.50 from $10.20 to $11.00 and for sales growth to 10.0% to 14.0% from 7.5% to 11.5%. The stock, on track to open at the highest price seen since early-February 2022, has rallied 15.4% over the past three months through Wednesday while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 4.9%.
