ABB Posts Upbeat Q3 Profit

ABB (NYSE: ABB) reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit.ABB posted a quarterly profit of $734 million, versus a year-ago profit of $835 million. Basic earnings per share slipped to $0.32 from $0.36. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $708 million. After-tax gains from the sale of businesses amounted to $145 million in the period. The latest quarter earnings also included net pre-tax charges for foreign exchange and commodity timing differences of $76 million, versus positive pre-tax impacts of $113 million in the year-ago quarter.Its revenue declined 7% to $9.82 billion versus $10.54 billion, versus expectations of $10.25 billion. Like-for-like revenue dropped 4% in the quarter.Orders rose 24% y/y. In the first half, the Power Systems unit had reported a $53 million operational loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and ammortization.Operational earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization dropped 13% to $1.4 billion, while operational EBITDA margin narrowed to 14.3% from 15.7%.At the end of September, order backlog was $27 billion, a rise of 4% from the end of the year-ago quarter.Total debt at the end of the quarter was around $7.9 billion. Cash from operations slipped 6% to $1.2 billion in the quarter.“Our program for profitable organic growth has successfully created healthy order momentum across all regions,” said CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “I am encouraged to see attractive large project wins and five consecutive quarters of base order growth.”ABB shares gained 1.60% to close at $20.97 yesterday.