Europe’s biggest engineering company said on Tuesday net profit from continuing operations in its fiscal second quarter had fallen compared with the first.
While net income in the quarter to March 31 was above the 1.4 billion euros ($2 billion) earned a year-earlier, and sales rose significantly, Siemens gave a less rosy view of the April to September period.
“I expect that growth will slow in the second half of the year,” Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser said, adding that Siemens would unveil adjusted forecasts in early May due to restructuring at the company.
Shares in Siemens turned negative on the news, falling 2 percent.
“The capital goods sector is all about momentum and sentiment is not getting better,” Unicredit analyst James Stettler said.
Last month, the German company unveiled a new management and corporate structure and said it would float lighting unit Osram, in what amounts to the most radical revamp since 2007.
In January Kaeser had told analysts the supply chain for short-cycle businesses — whose products take less than three months to make — might already be overbought. As a result, he added, the company would see growth ease somewhat in the second half of 2011.
“Investors are in a very optimistic mood at the moment and are expecting further strong growth, which naturally means they are not happy to hear news about slackening demand,” a trader said.
Kaeser said Siemens was cautious about the knock-on effects from Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami but not broadly pessimistic.
Siemens’ share has outperformed Germany’s blue-chip DAX .GDAXI index since the March 11 quake and analysts said some investors had used Kaeser’s statement on Tuesday to book profit.
In February, Germany’s engineering industry said it is working flat-out to meet a flood of orders from China and emerging markets, prompting sector trade body VDMA to raise its output forecast to 10 percent growth for 2011.
In the first quarter Siemens beat profit forecasts due to robust demand in fast-growing emerging economies and said signs for future sales were strong.
On Tuesday, Kaeser said results in the company’s renewable energy business were disappointing and the company was also being hit by costs of 50 to 100 million euros from a delay in the construction of an atomic plant in Finland.
Sales growth in diagnostics was also weak, with earnings stuck at prior year level, Kaeser said.
However, Kaeser said he did not expect Siemens’ margins to decline.
