ABB shares fall after sales target remains unchanged

ZURICH (Reuters) -Shares in ABB fell on Tuesday after the Swiss engineering group kept its sales targets unchanged, with analysts saying investors may have hoped for more ambitious growth, even as the company raised its profitability goals.

The company, which is selling its industrial robots business to SoftBank Group, reaffirmed its forecast for annual comparable sales growth of 5% to 7%, plus an additional 1% to 2% from acquisitions.

Larger deals would come on top of the usual flow of small to mid-size deals, ABB added.

ABB shares fell 4% in early trade, while the index for European industrial goods and services dropped 1.4%.

"There may have been higher expectations," analysts at Zuercher Kantonalbank said.

Vontobel analysts noted that rivals recently lifted growth ambitions, making ABB’s unchanged revenue target look conservative.

Siemens last week raised its target, saying it expects sales to rise by 6 to 9% in the mid-term.

ABB, whose products are used to provide electricity to factories and buildings, as well as in mines, ports and to power cruise liners, raised its profitability margin goal.

The Zurich-based company is targeting operational earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation margin of 18 to 22% over the next few years, up from a previous goal of 16 to 19%.

ABB has recently seen a surge in growth, helped by the products it supplies for the data centre market used to power artificial intelligence.

ABB aims to invest in electrification and automation, CEO Morten Wierod told Reuters in October.

(Reporting by Ariane Luthi, Editing by Friederike Heine, Susan Fenton and Louise Heavens)