Industrial Atlas Copco's Q3 profit falls slightly less than expected

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish industrial group Atlas Copco reported on Thursday a fall in third-quarter adjusted operating profit that was slightly smaller than expected and predicted customer activity would remain at the current level in the short term.

Operating profit before items affecting comparability was 8.86 billion crowns ($941 million) against a year-earlier 9.44 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had on average forecast a profit of 8.68 billion crowns.

Shares in the company, which makes a wide range of industrial products from air treatment systems to construction equipment and power tools, fell 2.2% at 1009 GMT, having been roughly flat before the release of the earnings report. 

(Reporting by Jagoda Darlak in Gdansk and Greta Rosen Fondahn in Stockholm, editing by Anna Ringstrom)