Rockwell Automation delivered a double dose of upbeat news this week, reporting a 17% increase in quarterly sales on the heels of its disclosure that it will purchase Incuity Software Inc., a purveyor of enterprise manufacturing intelligence software.
For its second quarter of fiscal 2008, ended March 31, Rockwell reported sales of $1.4 billion, a 17% improvement on $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2007. Income from continuing operations reached $142.8 million, up from $120 million in the year-prior quarter, as foreign currency translation and acquisitions contributed 6 percentage points and 4 percentage points, respectively, to the growth, the company said.
The fiscal Q2 results were in line with expectations but demonstrated a different mix of product and regional performance than had been expected. One financial analyst on a conference call this morning described it as “a good quarter, but with a lot of moving parts.”
Specifically, Rockwell’s core process automation business grew 21% organically, with recent acquisitions, such as Pavilion Technologies and ISC Triplex boosting growth even higher. However, Rockwell’s Logix integrated control platform slipped in the quarter, growing only 7% compared with 15% in the first quarter .