Rockwell Automation Stock Jumps. It’s All About the Outlook.

A worker at Rockwell Automation’s headquarters in Milwaukee. (Courtesy Rockwell Automation)

Key Points

• Rockwell Automation reported earnings per share of $3.34, up 32% year over year, on sales of $2.3 billion, up 14%.
• For fiscal year 2026, Rockwell Automation projects sales growth of 3% to 7% and EPS between $11.20 and $12.20.
• Rockwell Automation’s stock rose 4.4% to $378.38, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both declined 0.5%.

Rockwell Automation offered relief for the embattled U.S. manufacturing sector, issuing a positive outlook for the coming fiscal year. Earnings for the three months through September were better than expected.

For the quarter, the maker of process and discrete automation hardware and software announced earnings per share of $3.34, up 32% year over year, from sales of $2.3 billion, up 14%. Wall Street was looking for EPS of $2.94 from sales of $2.2 billion.

For fiscal 2026, management expects sales growth of 3% to 7% and EPS to land between $11.20 and $12.20. Those calls compare with Wall Street’s expectations for sales growth of about 4% and EPS of $11.45.

Shares rose 2.7% to $372.50 on Thursday, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1% and 0.8%, respectively. Coming into Thursday trading, Rockwell’s stock was up 27% year to date.

Jefferies analyst Saree Boroditsky called results and guidance “solid” in a Thursday report. She rates Rockwell Automation shares Buy and has a $410 price target for the stock.

“We entered fiscal 2025 with a clear view of the challenges ahead, and we delivered. Rockwell finished the year with growth in sales and adjusted earnings, strong cash flow, and continued margin expansion,” said CEO Blake Moret in a news release. “We are well-positioned for continued profitable growth in fiscal year 2026 and beyond.”

Sales of $8.34 billion for the fiscal year were up just a hair from fiscal 2024 sales of $8.26 billion. Growth has been a struggle because manufacturing has been sluggish.

The Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers’ Index, a metric investors look at to gauge the health of the manufacturing economy, came in at 48.7 for October. A reading above 50 indicates growth.

The October reading was the eighth consecutive reading below 50. Readings above 50 in January and February snapped a streak of 26 consecutive months below 50. It has been a historically rough patch for the sector.

Growth looks to be returning, though. On Wednesday, Emerson Electric told investors to expect fiscal 2026 sales growth of about 5.5%, which would represent an acceleration from the pace in 2025. That stock fell after earnings, however, because Wall Street was expecting more.

Regardless of expectations, the prospects for manufacturing in 2026 appear more favorable than the outlook for 2025.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com