Rockwell Automation, Inc. (ROK) Earnings & Analysis

Latest quarter

Rockwell Automation reported Q3 FY2026 revenue of $2.3 billion, which the company said was 2.54% above the consensus, and adjusted EPS of $3.49, 2.95% above the consensus of $3.39. The company’s filing reported revenue growth of 7.88% from Q3 FY2025 and diluted EPS of $3.65, up 40.4% from $2.60 a year earlier.

The filing said organic sales increased 10% year over year, while reported sales increased 8%, with the Sensia dissolution reducing sales and currency translation adding to sales. Intelligent Devices sales increased 12%, Software & Control sales increased 19%, and Lifecycle Services sales decreased 12%, according to the filing. Rockwell Automation reported gross margin of 49.5%, compared with 48.8% a year earlier, and operating margin of 20.3%, compared with 16.0%. The company reported Q3 free cash flow of $654.0 million, compared with $489.0 million in the prior-year quarter.

Adjusted EPS is the figure the consensus estimates, not the GAAP EPS above.

What management said on the call

Blake Moret said demand broadened across more end markets during the third quarter, led by semiconductor, data center, e-commerce and warehouse automation. He said Rockwell was also seeing early renewed project activity in automotive and life sciences, while food and beverage and parts of process had not yet seen a pickup in capital spending. Moret said products outperformed longer-cycle solutions, as smaller modernization projects drove much of quarterly growth.

Moret said customers continued to delay some large projects amid tariff and geopolitical uncertainty, cautious capital deployment, high approval thresholds, funding constraints and uncertainty over costs and terms. In response to analyst questions, he said the company had seen new automotive projects and life-sciences wins, but did not characterize these developments as a broad opening of project activity.

Christian Rothe said enterprise operating margin reached 22.3%, driven by higher sales volume and favorable mix, while higher input costs partially offset those factors. He said Q3 price-cost was unfavorable because costs were rising and the timing of price increases deferred realization into Q4. Rothe said Rockwell implemented an inflation-related price increase late in Q3 and expects price-cost to turn positive year over year in Q4, although inflation is expected to rise further sequentially.

On supply and investment, Rothe said demand tied to data centers was raising costs for memory and other inputs, but that supply-chain actions had supported component availability. Moret said the company was using more frequent price changes, a fixed-discount approach and alternate material sources to address inflation. Rothe declined to quantify the precise quarterly price-cost figures, saying the company would not “dimensionalize exactly what the numbers were in the quarter.”

For Q4, Rothe said sequential sales growth is expected to come mainly from solutions and configured-order projects, while mix and inflation are expected to weigh on sequential enterprise operating margin.

Guidance

Rockwell Automation raised its FY2026 reported sales-growth and organic sales-growth guidance to 7.50%–9.50%, according to the company. Christian Rothe said the company increased adjusted EPS guidance to $13.00–$13.30, with a $13.15 midpoint that was $0.35 above the midpoint of its prior guide. The company said its FY2026 GAAP EPS guidance is $12.72–$13.02.