Rockwell seeing signs of recovery

Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee, reported its results for the first fiscal quarter of 2010, showing a 10 percent decline in revenues from the same quarter in 2009 and a 32 percent decline in income, which outperformed expectations and spurred a rally in the company's shares today.

The company's first quarter 2010 revenues were $1,067.5 million, compared to $1,189.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. Income from continuing operations was $77.8 million, compared to $115.6 million.

Keith Nosbusch, Rockwell's chairman and chief executive, sees cause for optimism over the coming year. "Our first quarter performance and continued improvement in the global economy seem to indicate that we are at the early stage of a recovery. However, high unemployment, historically low levels of capacity utilization and a very cautious capital spending outlook create uncertainty as to the shape of the recovery in manufacturing. Given our improved revenue baseline, we are revising our full year fiscal 2010 earnings per share guidance to $2.00 to $2.40 on a revenue range of $4.4 billion to $4.6 billion."

Rockwell earnings release