ROK

Earnings results often indicate what direction a company will take in the months ahead. With Q2 behind us, let’s have a look at Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) and its peers. Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) companies are buoyed by the secular trend of a more connected world. They often specialize in nascent areas such as hardware and services for factory automation, fleet tracking, or smart home technologies. Those who play their cards right can generate recurring subscription revenues by providing cloud-based software services, boosting their margins. On the other hand, if the technologies these companies have invested in don’t pan out, they may have to make costly pivots. The 6 internet of things stocks we track reported a strong Q2. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 2.1% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line. In light of this news, share prices of the companies have held steady as they are up 1.4% on average since the latest earnings results. One of the first companies to address industrial automation, Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) sells products that help customers extract more efficiency from their machinery. Rockwell Automation reported revenues of $2.31 billion, up 7.9% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 2.8%. Overall, it was a very strong quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ organic revenue and EBITDA estimates. Investor expectations, however, were likely higher than Wall Street’s published projections, leaving some wishing for even better results (analysts’ consensus estimates are those published by big banks and advisory firms, not the investors who make buy and sell decisions). The stock is down 11.9% since reporting and currently trades at $423.63. Is now the time to buy Rockwell Automation? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Started from its humble beginnings in motor repair, AMETEK (NYSE:AME) manufactures electronic devices used in industries like aerospace, power, and healthcare. AMETEK reported revenues of $2.04 billion, up 15% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 4.4%. The business had a very strong quarter with full-year EPS guidance slightly topping analysts’ expectations. AMETEK scored the biggest analyst estimate beat and fastest revenue growth of the whole group. Although it had a fine quarter compared to its peers, the market seems unhappy with the results as the stock is down 4.6% since reporting. It currently trades at $232.57. Is now the time to buy AMETEK? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free. Founded in 1890, Emerson Electric (NYSE:EMR) is a multinational technology and engineering company providing solutions in the industrial, commercial, and residential markets. Emerson Electric reported revenues of $4.87 billion, up 7% year on year, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 1.5%. Still, it was a mixed quarter as it posted a significant miss of analysts’ EBITDA estimates. As expected, the stock is down 5.6% since the results and currently trades at $150.00. Read our full analysis of Emerson Electric’s results here. Playing a role in the construction of the Paris Grand, Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) offers geospatial devices and technology to the agriculture, construction, transportation, and logistics industries. Trimble reported revenues of $972 million, up 11% year on year. This number topped analysts’ expectations by 2.2%. It was a strong quarter as it also recorded full-year EPS guidance beating analysts’ expectations and a beat of analysts’ EPS estimates. Trimble delivered the highest guidance raise and highest full-year guidance raise in the group. The stock is up 2.3% since reporting and currently trades at $59.31. Read our full, actionable report on Trimble here, it’s free. Founded by an employee at a real estate rental company, SmartRent (NYSE:SMRT) provides smart home devices and software for multifamily residential properties, single-family rental homes, and student housing communities. SmartRent reported revenues of $39.84 million, up 4% year on year. This result beat analysts’ expectations by 0.6%. Overall, it was a very strong quarter as it also logged an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates and EPS in line with analysts’ estimates. SmartRent had the weakest performance against analyst estimates among its peers. The stock is up 31.4% since reporting and currently trades at $1.38. Read our full, actionable report on SmartRent here, it’s free. Over the past year, investors have been forced to repeatedly answer the same question: what is the market’s biggest risk? The answer has changed several times, and each shift has reshaped market leadership. Late in 2025 and early 2026, artificial intelligence became the market’s primary uncertainty. Investors questioned whether AI would erode software pricing power and weaken competitive moats as AI made it easier to replicate once-differentiated products. By the spring, technology took a back seat to geopolitics. The U.S. conflict with Iran briefly became the market’s dominant narrative, raising concerns about oil prices, inflation, and global growth. But as energy markets remained orderly and fears of a prolonged supply disruption faded, investors quickly turned their focus back to fundamentals. Want to invest in winners with rock-solid fundamentals? Check out our 9 Best Market-Beating Stocks and add them to your watchlist. These companies are poised for growth regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate.

Rockwell Automation stock has delivered a solid 44.6% return over the past five years, while current valuation checks suggest the shares trade at a premium to an intrinsic value estimate built from projected cash flows and to what earnings based multiples imply. A 44.6% gain over five years points to a stock that has already rewarded patient shareholders, which can make entry points more sensitive to valuation assumptions. Expectations for continued cash generation from Rockwell Automation's industrial automation and software offerings can support the current share price, while any slowdown in project spending or weaker equipment demand may weigh on future cash flow growth and pressure the valuation. On broader checks Rockwell Automation screens as expensive rather than a clear bargain, with a low overall value score that you can review in more detail at 0 of 6 valuation checks passed. The key question for investors is whether Rockwell Automation's current share price already reflects most of its intrinsic value based on the Discounted Cash Flow model and market multiples, or if there is still room for a reasonable margin of safety. Spot opportunities beyond Rockwell Automation by comparing its premium pricing to hand picked 45 high quality undervalued stocks that currently screen as potential value candidates on Simply Wall St. The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model estimates what Rockwell Automation is worth based on the cash it is expected to generate for shareholders. For Rockwell Automation, the latest twelve month free cash flow is about $1.5b, and the model uses a growing cash flow profile that extends this out over the next decade and beyond. Using this 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity approach, the DCF points to an estimated intrinsic value of about $364 per share. Compared with the current share price, this implies the stock screens as around 18.3% overvalued on this cash flow view. The key takeaway is that the current price already reflects healthy ongoing free cash flow and leaves a smaller cushion if those projections are not met. On this DCF view, Rockwell Automation stock currently appears overvalued relative to its projected cash flows. Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests Rockwell Automation may be overvalued by 18.3%. Discover 45 high quality undervalued stocks or create your own screener to find better value opportunities. Head to the Valuation section of our Company Report for more details on how we arrive at this Fair Value for Rockwell Automation. The P/E ratio is a useful way to look at Rockwell Automation because earnings remain a key anchor for how investors value established industrial and software focused businesses. Rockwell Automation currently trades on a P/E of about 39.9x, compared with an Electrical industry average of roughly 34.0x and a peer average near 33.9x. The Simply Wall St model suggests a fair P/E for Rockwell Automation of about 30.2x, based on its earnings profile and risk factors. That is a clear gap to the current multiple, which sits almost 10 turns higher than this tailored fair value estimate. On this earnings yardstick, investors are paying a premium to both sector benchmarks and the modelled fair ratio for the stock. On the P/E multiple, Rockwell Automation stock currently screens as overvalued relative to both its industry and the modelled fair ratio. See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. Simply Wall St Narratives pick up where the Rockwell Automation valuation puzzle leaves off. They spell out what would need to happen to Rockwell Automation's growth, margins and earnings for the stock to be worth meaningfully more or less than today, and they sit on the company’s Community page. Each narrative treats fair value as a thesis about Rockwell Automation's business that you can revisit over time and see how it holds up. Community narratives on Rockwell Automation sit far apart, with one side focused on digital upside and the other on execution and competitive risks. Bull case: 9% undervalued Read the full Bull Case to see why Rockwell Automation could be undervalued Bear case: 20% overvalued Read the full Bear Case to see why Rockwell Automation could be overvalued Do you think there's more to the story for Rockwell Automation? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying! For Rockwell Automation, both the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) intrinsic value estimate and the P/E based view currently point to an overvalued stock, and the broader checks also lean that way. The key question for investors is whether Rockwell Automation can generate sufficient durable cash flow and earnings to justify paying above the intrinsic value estimate and above sector multiples. This depends on confidence in ongoing demand for its automation and software offerings, as well as its ability to defend margins amid competition and technology shifts. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned. Companies discussed in this article include ROK. Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email [email protected]

Rockwell Automation’s second quarter results drew a negative market response despite revenue and adjusted EPS both exceeding Wall Street expectations. Management attributed the outperformance to robust demand across discrete manufacturing sectors, particularly in semiconductors, data centers, and e-commerce automation, as well as the successful rollout of new hardware and software products. CEO Blake Moret cited "broad-based growth across all product lines," with the Intelligent Devices and Software & Control segments delivering notable gains. However, persistent inflationary pressures and only modest improvement in longer-cycle capital projects tempered sentiment, as did management’s cautious commentary on ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. Is now the time to buy ROK? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $2.31 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.25 billion (7.9% year-on-year growth, 2.8% beat) Adjusted EPS: $3.49 vs analyst estimates of $3.38 (3.2% beat) Adjusted EBITDA: $584.3 million vs analyst estimates of $563.8 million (25.3% margin, 3.6% beat) The company lifted its revenue guidance for the full year to $9 billion at the midpoint from $8.9 billion, a 1.1% increase Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $13.15 at the midpoint, a 2.7% increase Operating Margin: 20.8%, up from 17.6% in the same quarter last year Organic Revenue rose 10% year on year (beat) Market Capitalization: $48.33 billion While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Scott Davis (Melius Research) asked about the mechanics of price realization and tariff-based pricing. CFO Christian Rothe clarified that tariff-based and underlying price increases are managed separately, with tariff pricing intended to maintain EPS neutrality. Andrew Obin (Bank of America) pressed on the sustainability of inflation and what structural responses Rockwell has in place. Rothe emphasized ongoing productivity actions, supply chain coordination, and the ability to implement frequent price changes as key countermeasures. Andy Kaplowitz (Citigroup) inquired about improving trends in automotive and life sciences markets. CEO Blake Moret highlighted renewed project activity and competitive wins, particularly as auto manufacturers invest in hybrid and internal combustion engine programs. Christopher Snyder (Morgan Stanley) questioned the outlook for short-cycle versus long-cycle business momentum into the next year. Moret responded that growth is expected across both discrete and process markets, with data centers and new product launches driving continued strength. Noah Kaye (Oppenheimer) asked for an update on the integration and growth prospects for production logistics and autonomous mobile robots. Moret noted that the integration is progressing well, with strong growth expected from both consumer and industrial customers. Looking ahead, the StockStory team will be watching (1) signs of a rebound in large capital projects within food & beverage and process industries, (2) the margin impact of ongoing inflation and the effectiveness of Rockwell’s price realization strategy, and (3) continued order momentum in high-growth verticals like data centers, semiconductors, and automotive. Execution on new product rollouts and improvements in recurring revenue will also be important markers of success. Rockwell Automation currently trades at $435.00, down from $480.98 just before the earnings. In the wake of this quarter, is it a buy or sell? See for yourself in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 6 Stocks for This Week. This market is separating quality stocks from expensive ones fast. AI is taking down whole sectors with no warning. In a rotation this fast, you need more than a list of good companies. Our AI system flagged Palantir before it ran 1,662% between October 2022 and February 2026. AppLovin before it ran 753% between February 2024 and February 2026. Nvidia before it ran 1,178% between January 2023 and February 2026. Each week it produces 6 new names that pass the same tests. Get Our Top 6 Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-small-cap company Comfort Systems (+1,154% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET Head of Investor Relations and Market Strategy - Aijana Zellner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Blake Moret Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer - Christian Rothe Operator: Thank you for holding, and welcome to Rockwell Automation's Quarterly Conference Call. I need to remind everyone that today's conference call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Aijana Zellner, Head of Investor Relations and Market Strategy. Ms. Zellner, please go ahead. Aijana Zellner: Thank you, Julianne. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Rockwell Automation's Third Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Release Conference Call. With me today is Blake Moret, our Chairman and CEO; and Christian Rothe, our CFO. Our results were released earlier this morning, and the press release and charts are available on our website. These materials as well as our remarks today will reference non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures are included in both the press release and charts. A replay of today's webcast and a transcript of our prepared remarks will be available on our website at the conclusion of today's call. Before we begin, please note that our comments today include forward-looking statements regarding the expected future results of our company. Our actual results may differ materially due to a wide range of risks and uncertainties described in our earnings release and SEC filings. So with that, I'll hand it over to Blake. Blake Moret: Thanks, Aijana, and good morning, everyone. Before we turn to our third quarter results on Slide 3, I'll make a couple of initial comments. We delivered a strong quarter with double-digit year-over-year growth in sales and earnings exceeding our expectations. This sustained momentum underscores Rockwell's strong position in North America and growing penetration in new end markets, an accelerated pace of new product introduction, our unmatched partner ecosystem and the team's disciplined execution. We continue to see strong demand across Semiconductor, Data Center, E-commerce & Warehouse Automation. While we are not yet seeing a pickup in CapEx across Food & Beverage and parts of process, we are seeing early signs of renewed project activity in Automotive and Life Sciences. Customers are increasingly turning to Rockwell's differentiated portfolio of hardware, software and services to adapt to changing market dynamics from GLP-1 related investments and evolving food and beverage demand to AI-driven data center growth and new opportunities across energy storage, defense and advanced manufacturing. I'm proud of how our team continues to execute amid geopolitical volatility, trade uncertainty and persistent inflation. The Rockwell Operating Model helps us drive operational excellence, serve customers and invest for the future. Those principles are on full display at our Singapore manufacturing facility, which was recently named the World Economic Forum Lighthouse for its leadership in digital and AI-enabled manufacturing. Turning to our third quarter results on Slide 3. Q3 sales came in above our expectations. Reported sales were up 8% and organic sales were up 10% with the impact of the Sensia dissolution decreasing sales by 3% and currency contributing about 1% of growth. Products continue to outperform our longer-cycle solutions business as smaller modernization projects across most industries drove the majority of our growth in the quarter. The verticals seeing the strongest capital investment, including Semiconductor, Data Center and E-commerce & Warehouse tend to be more heavily weighted toward our product and software offerings. Our Intelligent Devices organic sales grew 10% year-over-year with broad-based growth across all product lines. New offerings such as PointMax I/O, additional PowerFlex drives and FLEXLINE motor control centers are seeing strong adoption, particularly in E-commerce & Warehouse Automation and process industries. We also delivered double-digit growth in our Production Logistics business with strategic wins across Food & Beverage, Semiconductor and Life Sciences. Software & Control organic sales were up 18% versus prior year, driven by another quarter of strong double-digit growth in Logix. Lifecycle Services organic sales were down 2% versus prior year, generally in line with expectations. Book-to-bill in this segment was 0.97. While customer engagement remains healthy, growth in this segment continues to be constrained by the lack of capital spending recovery in Food & Beverage and certain process industries where many of our Lifecycle Services offerings are deployed. Organic annual recurring revenue grew 6% in the quarter, below our expectations. High single-digit software growth was partially offset by the slower growth in recurring Lifecycle Services. While services growth was softer than expected, we continue to add important ARR wins across our customer base. A great example is Unilever, which expanded its cybersecurity program to additional sites. The engagement combines our threat detection and secure remote access software with managed cybersecurity services to provide continuous monitoring, secure connectivity and protection of critical manufacturing operations. Enterprise operating margin of 22.3% and adjusted EPS of $3.49 were up double digits versus prior year, led by strong volume and favorable mix. Moving to Slide 4 for Q3 industry highlights. Our discrete sales grew high teens year-over-year, led by strong double-digit growth in Semiconductor, Data Center and E-com & Warehouse. Within discrete, Automotive sales were up low double digits versus prior year, marking another quarter of better-than-expected performance. Customers continue to prioritize investments in productivity, quality and asset utilization. While tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty continue to delay large greenfield projects, modernization spending remains strong. A great example is Convergix, a global system integrator who chose Rockwell's Emulate3D digital twin software to model a complex conveyance system. The solution is helping reduce project risk, accelerate commissioning and bring production online faster. Another notable win in Q3 was with a large automotive brand owner, where Rockwell's end-to-end automation portfolio was selected to improve operational efficiency and accelerate the launch of future vehicle programs across multiple global plants. E-commerce & Warehouse Automation sales were up 30% year-over-year with continued strong performance across regions and customer segments. Semiconductor delivered another strong quarter, driven by increased activity from several leading equipment manufacturers and chip makers, including continued investment tied to AI infrastructure. Data center remained a strong growth market in the quarter. Customers continue to invest in the power, cooling, automation and control systems required to support increasingly complex and energy-intensive facilities. This creates further opportunities across our hardware, software and services portfolio. Turning to our hybrid industries. Sales in this segment grew mid-single digits with good growth across all major verticals. Food & Beverage sales were up mid-single digits, led by growth in North America. While we have yet to see an inflection in large capital projects here, customers continue to invest in modernization and digital transformation initiatives across protein, dairy, fiber and nonalcoholic beverage applications. Sales in our Life Sciences vertical were up 10% in Q3 with broad-based growth across all regions and continued improvement at both machine builders and end users. In addition to favorable end market demand, we continue to expand our position through competitive wins. An important win in the quarter was with a leading pharmaceutical and biotech contract development and manufacturing organization who chose Rockwell's integrated process control and MES platform to standardize drug substance manufacturing across its operations. Moving to process. Our sales here were up high single digits, led by growth in Energy, Metals and Chemicals. Energy sales were up high single digits in the quarter with customer spending focused on brownfield expansions, asset modernization and production optimization. We also continue to see healthy activity across LNG, midstream, power infrastructure and offshore markets, supported by rising energy demand and the ongoing build-out of power capacity for data center and electrification. Mining sales were down mid-single digits, reflecting measured capital deployment across the industry and some project timing delays, specifically in Latin America. With that said, customers continue to invest in productivity, autonomy and digital transformation as demand for critical minerals continues to grow. Moving to Slide 5 for our Q3 organic regional sales. Similar to last quarter, we saw good year-over-year growth across most of our regions. North America was our strongest region in the quarter with 12% year-over-year growth, and we continue to expect it to be our fastest-growing region for the full year fiscal 2026. Let's now turn to Slide 6 to review our fiscal 2026 outlook. With 3 quarters behind us, customer investment is broadening across more of our end markets. While we have yet to see a broad-based recovery in large capital projects, we are confident Rockwell is best positioned to capitalize as spending accelerates. In the meantime, we'll continue to operate with discipline and prudence in what remains a very dynamic environment. We now expect both our reported and organic sales growth to be in the 7.5% to 9.5% range for the year. At the midpoint, reported sales growth includes approximately 150 basis points of favorable currency translation, offset by the impact of the Sensia dissolution. Our full year sales midpoint of 8.5% assumes modest sequential growth in Q4 driven by the typical seasonal uptick in our longer-cycle businesses within Lifecycle Services and Intelligent Devices. We expect organic annual recurring revenue to grow mid-single digits. We continue to expect our enterprise operating margin to be 21.5%, up 260 basis points from last year. And we now expect our adjusted EPS to be $13.15 at the midpoint, representing about 25% growth versus fiscal 2025. Finally, we continue to expect free cash flow conversion of 100% in fiscal year '26. I'll now turn it over to Christian for more detail on our Q3 and financial outlook for fiscal '26. Christian? Christian Rothe: Thank you, Blake, and good morning, everyone. Let's go to Slide 7, third quarter key financial information. As Blake mentioned, our third quarter organic sales were up 10% versus prior year. Price contributed approximately 1% to growth. Our enterprise operating margin expanded 280 basis points year-over-year, driven by higher sales volume and favorable mix, partially offset by negative price/cost. As expected, the dissolution of Sensia had a positive impact of about 40 basis points on enterprise operating margin. Gross margins expanded 70 basis points year-over-year to 49.5%, driven by higher volume, favorable mix and a margin benefit from the Sensia dissolution. The Sensia dissolution was effective on April 1 of this year and as expected, was completed smoothly and on schedule. Excluding the year-over-year impact of the divested businesses in Q3, gross margins expanded slightly year-over-year. SG&A was up less than 1%, giving us solid P&L leverage on our baseline spending and engineering and development increased 5% as sales growth was faster than our engineering and development spend. However, E&D still represented about 8% of sales in the third quarter. We continue to expect E&D to be about 8% of sales for the full year. Our adjusted effective tax rate in the quarter was 19.2%, slightly lower than our expectations. We continue to expect an adjusted ETR of 19.5% for the full year. The broadening strength in our business that Blake highlighted drove another quarter of outperformance with Q3 adjusted EPS of $3.49, up more than 20% year-over-year. Free cash flow in Q3 of $654 million was above our expectations. It was $165 million higher than the prior year, primarily due to higher pretax income driven by our strong Q3 results and good working capital management. Now on to Slide 8 for the sales and margin performance of our 3 operating segments. Intelligent Devices margin of 20% increased by 120 basis points year-over-year, lower than we expected. The higher year-over-year sales, favorable currency and mix were partially offset by inflation. Year-over-year segment incrementals landed at 30%. Software & Control margin of 34.8% was up 320 basis points versus prior year and was higher than our expectations, driven by strong sales volume, partially offset by inflation. This segment saw year-over-year incrementals of about 50%. Lifecycle Services margin of 15.1% was up 180 basis points year-over-year, in line with expectations. Lifecycle Services had another quarter of good project execution and productivity and segment margin benefited from the dissolution of Sensia. These were partially offset by lower sales volume. Total Rockwell incremental margin was in the high 50s year-over-year in Q3 on an as-reported basis and over 40% on an organic basis. This is our fourth consecutive quarter of incrementals above 40%. Let's move to the next slide, 9, for the adjusted EPS walk from Q3 fiscal 2025 to Q3 fiscal 2026. Year-over-year, core performance had an impact of $0.65 in Q3. Our core performance was driven by volume, mix and productivity, partially offset by price/cost. Core price/cost was unfavorable in the quarter, reflecting rising costs and the timing of price increases. We implemented a price increase late in Q3 that will be realized in Q4. The team still delivered strong margins and healthy incremental conversion in the quarter, demonstrating the strength of our operating model. We continue to expect positive price/cost both for the full year and in Q4. Tax was a $0.20 headwind, largely due to BEPS Pillar Two. All other items had a $0.09 positive impact on our adjusted EPS. Moving on to the next slide, 10, to discuss our guidance for the full year. We are increasing both our reported and organic revenue guidance to a range of 7.5% to 9.5% or 8.5% at the midpoint. This is up 150 basis points from our prior guidance. This increase reflects the outperformance we saw in the quarter and higher growth expectations for Q4. Our third quarter results and full year guide do not include any impact from expected IEEPA refunds or claims resulting from the Supreme Court decision. Turning to Slide 11. We are increasing our adjusted EPS guidance range to $13 to $13.30. The new midpoint of $13.15 per share is up $0.35 from the midpoint of our prior guide. For the full year, we still expect about 250 basis points of price realization with about 100 basis points from tariff-related pricing and about 150 basis points from underlying price. We remain on track for tariffs to be EPS neutral in fiscal 2026 with pricing offsetting the associated costs. This updated guide continues to reflect our expectations for full year incrementals of greater than 50% on an as-reported basis and high 40s on an organic basis. These strong incrementals are driving 260 basis points of expansion in enterprise operating margin year-over-year. Specific to the fourth quarter, we expect total company reported sales to be up low single digits sequentially with approximately flat enterprise operating margin compared to Q3. This is due to higher inflation and an unfavorable mix with configure-to-order and solutions sales hitting their normal seasonal peak. Intelligent Devices segment margin should be up slightly from the third quarter on modestly higher sequential volume. We expect segment margin in Software & Control to be lower sequentially on flat sales as inflation on items like memory hit here the hardest. For Lifecycle Services, we expect segment margin to be flat from the third quarter on higher seasonal sequential revenue. For the full year, we expect Intelligent Devices reported revenue to grow in the low double digits with segment operating margin of around 20%. For Software & Control, reported revenue should grow in the high teens with segment margin in the low 30s, up several hundred basis points year-over-year. For Lifecycle Services, we expect reported revenue to decline about $150 million year-over-year, driven by the Sensia dissolution and some of the ongoing longer-cycle headwinds Blake discussed. We still expect Lifecycle segment operating margin to be flat to slightly up year-over-year. For your models, CapEx for fiscal 2026 will come in at about 3% of sales. A few additional comments on fiscal 2026 guidance for your models. We expect Corporate and other expense to be around $115 million. Net interest expense for fiscal 2026 is targeted at about $120 million. During the quarter, we repurchased about 300,000 shares at a cost of about $150 million. We expect approximately $850 million in repurchases for the year. And we're now assuming average diluted shares outstanding of about 112.2 million shares. To summarize, while inflation remains a headwind, the Rockwell team has done a good job of managing through it by driving top line growth, securing component availability and mitigating cost pressure through pricing, productivity and disciplined spending. Combined with the core principles of the Rockwell operating model, these actions are driving double-digit year-over-year earnings growth and enterprise operating margin expansion of several hundred basis points year-over-year. Really proud of this team. With that, I'll turn it back to Blake for some closing remarks before we start Q&A. Blake? Blake Moret: Thanks, Christian. I'm pleased with our progress through the year with the fiscal year '26 top line guide at the higher end of our midterm growth framework and enterprise operating margin developing well. Customers are excited about the accelerated pace of new product launches, which is having a meaningful impact on our results. An Automation Fair is coming to Boston in November, where Rockwell and our partners will showcase even more offerings and innovation. Registration opens tomorrow. I continue to be proud of how our team is driving execution and customer service and how they're maximizing the impact of our investments on longer-term profitability and growth. Aijana will now begin the Q&A session. Aijana Zellner: Thanks, Blake. [Operator Instructions] With that as a quick follow. Julianne, let's take our first question. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Scott Davis from Melius Research. Scott Davis: Numbers look pretty solid overall. I got a little confused on the price comments. Maybe, Christian, you could help out a little bit. It seems like you guys have been running at about 1% of price positive. Now you're talking about getting, I think, another 1% and then another 1.5% on top of that for tariffs. Maybe I didn't hear that right. Just walk us through that, just a, to check my math, and b, is this an 80/20 initiative that you're able to drive some incremental price? Are the tariff price increases actually separate and they come off as soon as tariffs come up? Kind of how to mechanically do you guys manage this? Christian Rothe: Yes, sure, Scott. I appreciate the question. So we typically give a view on price for the full year at the outset of our guide for the beginning of the year, and then we kind of give updates as we go through. So we've always been calling out about 250 bps -- 200 to 250 bps of price for the full year 2026. 100 bps of that is coming from tariff-based price, 150 bps is coming from underlying price. In the third quarter, we started to lap some of the comps on tariff-based price. So the tariff-based price side was 1% and underlying price was close to 0. Now a lot of that has more to do with the timing of when our price increases have gone through. So we did an inflationary-based price change that happened in Q3. We're going to see that come through in the fourth quarter. That all is consistent with what we're expecting for the full year, that 250 basis points of total price. That tariff-based price, just to make sure we're on the same page around that. I know we talked about this message before, but tariff-based pricing is really there to create EPS neutrality around tariff-based cost. And so that's the -- it's not really all that incremental as far as the conversion goes. So I just wanted to note that for you. Scott Davis: Yes. No, that clears it up. And just quickly on Plex. I haven't heard you mention Plex in a while. Where are we on the deal model on that asset? And how are you guys feeling about it? Blake Moret: Yes, feeling good about Plex. Plex was part of the software ARR that was at the higher end, high single digits. Plex continues to add new logos, automotive tier suppliers, consumer, which -- at the very beginning, that was one of the fundamental hypothesis is that we could use our existing market access to help Plex expand into consumer-packaged goods, and that's exactly what we've done. Very profitable, new functionality, the embedding of agentic AI throughout in various of the modules work, and this is especially exciting to me personally, work to integrate Plex and the traditional MES with fleet management from our mobility, from mobile robots. And so you hear a lot going on about orchestration, and we've got a great head start by having a really fantastic cloud-native MES system with fleet management. So again, Plex is part of the software ARR that was up high single digits in the quarter. Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Obin from Bank of America. Andrew Obin: Just maybe a broader, bigger picture question on inflation and pricing. As you look over the next 6 to 12 months, what's going to get better, right? Because labor costs probably not going down. I think the semiconductor supply chain is not going to get better. I think raw materials remain in flux. And how do you adapt to this environment? So maybe your thoughts on inflation and what sort of structural countermeasures can you do because it seems like you guys are going to be in this inflationary growth environment for a while. Christian Rothe: Yes. Andrew, it's a good question. And for sure, inflation is a dynamic environment right now, started with memory earlier this fiscal year for us. And it's continuing to expand. Data centers definitely and data center demand is impacting a number of things, memory being the biggest one, but there's a number of other aspects that are coming with it. So first of all, from a -- #1 issue is let's make sure we can ship product. So that means let's make sure we have the components and we have good availability. The supply chain team has been on this all year long. So they have done a really good job of putting us in a good spot to be able to continue to produce our product. And so that is not impacted. Now that being said, the cost side is -- again, the inflation continues to be an item that is a growing headwind for us. At the first quarter call, I talked about it being a single-digit millions kind of headwind. Second quarter call, it was a double-digit million headwind. This call, I'll tell you that it's still double-digit million headwind for the second half here that we're experiencing, and it's a higher number than what we had last quarter. So it is, in fact, increasing. Now all that being said, we are in a position that we can go and get price to offset that. We have a lot of productivity actions that continue to occur inside the organization. And there's a lot of other aspects that are -- that can continue to work in our favor. Probably the biggest one is that we are in a growing volume environment, which does provide us the opportunity to go back and recapture some of the areas that we think we have savings on direct material, negotiation with suppliers, not necessarily on the ones that are impacted by inflation so much, but we do have an opportunity to continue to work really hard on the direct material cost. So the team is doing a good job with that. As we turn the page and we start thinking about next year, it's tough to know exactly what we're going to expect with regard to inflation because, again, it's not one of those that we're expecting to stabilize anytime soon. But we will continue to react to it, try to get ahead of it with regard to the supply chain and making sure we have the product in place, and we'll take pricing actions as appropriate. Blake Moret: So Christian, maybe just a few additional comments to that. Andrew, you asked structurally about what are we doing. Fortunately, we're actually able to take advantage of some of the structural changes that we incorporated during the supply chain shortages a few years back. A lot of that has to do with really good coordination with our channel partners because pricing for products largely goes through distribution. So moving to a fixed discount methodology for faster realization of price, more frequent price changes, we're in an environment like this, internally making progress on alternate sources of some material so that we can introduce some competition into the mix, those things are helping us well in the current environment. Andrew Obin: And just maybe a question on Lifecycle Services. I would have thought that as you're starting to see a pickup in organic growth, the installation business would pick up. Is it really driven mostly by these large CapEx projects that are still on the come? What's missing on the services ARR? Blake Moret: Sure. Yes. I think what we're seeing as we look at delays in the projects, we went deeper on that to look at the specific reasons given by customers. Overall, it's a cautious approach to deploying capital. It's a desire to delay things that are important, but perhaps not urgent in their eyes. We're seeing high levels of decision authority for greenlighting some of these projects. In certain cases, funding constraints, that was a specific issue with capital projects in LatAm that we saw. So there's nothing earth-shattering. Terms and conditions. I've mentioned that before, as people in such a volatile environment with respect to tariffs and inflation, they want to make sure that the cost side of their business case is solid. And in some cases, they're looking to take a card, so to speak, to be able to try to find a little more certainty in these situations. So it's a number of things and some of the factors are similar for the CapEx projects as they are for the lower ARR in services. Some of the root cause goes back to which industries are deploying capital and which are staying put. Food & Beverage is one that we've given as an example, which is a traditionally strong contributor to both Lifecycle Services CapEx projects as well as ARR with programs like cybersecurity. Operator: Our next question comes from Andy Kaplowitz from Citigroup. Andrew Kaplowitz: Christian, last quarter, you mentioned that book-to-bill was a bit over your normal range. Was that still the case in Q3? And would you say that you have more backlog coverage than usual at this point going into Q4? And then it seems like you're seeing some more unlock of larger CapEx projects now in larger markets such as Auto and Life Sciences. Why those markets? Maybe you could elaborate on the improvement you're seeing in those markets. Christian Rothe: Yes. So on the book-to-bill question, we called it out last quarter because it was just slightly above our normal corridor. And so that number we called out was, for the first half, we were expecting it to be back inside -- in fact, for the first half, it was inside the corridor, and that we were expecting for the remainder of the year was going to be inside the corridor. Q3 was inside of that corridor. So generally, we feel just fine about the development of our orders. It's consistent with what we're seeing on the sales side as well. So all in all, the book-to-bill is in good shape. Blake Moret: Yes. And Andy, regarding Automotive and Life Sciences, I am proud and happy to report that we saw a strengthening -- a renewed strengthening in those. Obviously, those are not related to data center spend, which is encouraging to see the broad-based nature of it. Automotive, we are seeing some green shoots of new projects. We've talked before about automobile manufacturers previously taking a pause as they shifted back from the surge in electric vehicle spending to recognizing that customers are still buying hybrid as well as internal combustion engine propelled vehicles. And we've seen some good projects. I mentioned one from a large OEM. And we've seen some really important competitive wins in terms of standardizations on Rockwell's architecture that's pretty exciting, and these are around the world as well. In Life Sciences, we've talked about that as a multiyear trend. Obviously, there are some specific marquee programs such as rollout of GLP-1 drugs, oral solid dose variants of GLP-1 is an important innovation that's driving a lot of need for additional automation. Our MES had some important competitive wins in drug substance. So we've been used -- for a long time in other parts of Life Sciences manufacturing, we're seeing increasing competitive wins in drug substance, which is pretty exciting. So we like those wins, and we think those are sustainable growth vectors. I'll mention as well, we talked about 10% organic growth in the quarter. If you took everything out that was related to data center, our organic growth would still have been 8% in the quarter, and that's a good number. Andrew Kaplowitz: Very helpful, Blake. And then maybe just on sort of the overall Data Center ecosystem business. Maybe update us on the sort of trend to trade the sort of commercial controllers for industrial PLCs, like how much that's helping Logix? And overall, like you've been very focused on the penetration into e-commerce. So maybe talk to us about -- obviously, you raised the estimates for the end markets, but how much of this is Rockwell penetrating versus the end markets continue to be strong? Blake Moret: Yes. I think you can look at additional share growth in the data center applications on top of a continually strong growing fundamental in terms of overall data center opportunities. To recap, 3 main areas of data center participation for Rockwell. There's the power distribution through our modular CUBIC design. This was the acquisition of the Danish company we made a few years ago. There is our participation in -- with the chiller manufacturers in terms of power control. So think motor control centers, big drives, medium-voltage drives with the chiller OEMs. And then there's the work that Logix is being increasingly used for primarily in the central utility plant. And so this is control of energy monitoring, it's emergency power, backup generator controls. Logix has inherent redundancy and safety characteristics that you can't get in the traditional distributed digital controller DDC units. And so we're seeing increasing standardization on those units by the hyperscalers as well as the contractors as they're trying to put together modular, very repeatable designs that increase the speed to capacity. Operator: Our next question comes from Chris Snyder from Morgan Stanley. Christopher Snyder: So I was following up on some of the commentary earlier that larger scale capital projects remain sluggish. So even despite that, the company has been able to generate very strong growth this year, almost 10% and healthy orders with the strength obviously being driven by the short-cycle side, whether it's investments in efficiency or brownfield. So I guess the question is, when you look at how the orders have developed or customer conversations into '27, how do you see these 2 respective sides of the business tracking? Do you think the short cycle can sustain the momentum we're seeing? Do you think there's reasons to believe that the large project business can show positive rate of change? Any color on that would be helpful. Blake Moret: Sure. Let me give some just general comments about trends as we look at fiscal year '27. Look, tailwinds, broadening of the growing verticals that we've been talking about, we don't see a reason that those are going to slow, which includes many that you're talking about. But it's not just short cycle. Energy was up high single digits. So there is contribution from process, which is to say that I don't think you can label that we're at a specific point in the traditional cycle that traditionally, you'd see short-cycle packaging, discrete followed a couple of quarters by longer-cycle process. I think the continued reverberations from COVID and supply chain shortages still have some impact. Data center makes its own weather, so to speak, which has an impact with the requirements for power to support data center. So I think it's hard to pin a specific point in the cycle on where we are, but we're very happy to see the contribution across different verticals in discrete, hybrid and process. We expect data center to keep on keeping on. We are happy with the renewed investments in Automotive and Life Sciences. Home & Personal care within consumer packaged goods was actually good in the quarter. Labor costs and shortages are going to continue to drive customer investment in automation as America continues to be interested in bringing more manufacturing on board. That only happens in a durable way with the thoughtful combination of trained and engaged workforce with the kind of technology that we offer. New product introductions to continue to take share. We talked about that before. Productivity is going to be as important as ever. And you can bet that as we're going into the year, it's going to be a continued aggressive productivity that's driven a lot of our recent success, and we're going to keep doing that. Pricing actions, Christian talked a little bit about that, and we continue to look at ways to further tune our ability to maximize price. And these are going to be needed because as Christian talked about, inflation is not going to go away. We are going to continue to expect tariff volatility, hope for the best, but plan for continued volatility there. And then geopolitical uncertainty is not likely to clear up soon. So that's kind of the headwinds and tailwinds that we see, but we like our position in the market. Christopher Snyder: I really appreciate that. And then maybe following up with a shorter-term question on Q4. I think you said margins flat sequentially. And I was just wondering, are there headwinds coming through that we should be aware of? Because typically, you see the margin step up on the higher volumes sequentially into Q4. And then this year, it feels like, in particular, we're going from price/cost negative in Q3 to positive in Q4, which I would think is just an incremental tailwind to that margin ramp. So just anything to call out as we kind of think about that Q3, Q4 margin progression? Christian Rothe: Yes, Chris, thanks for that. So yes, the sequential side, it really, we're talking about in that sequential low single-digit up. It's all coming for the most part from the solutions project configure-to-order side of the business. That will have a negative impact from a mix perspective. And then on top of that, the inflation is still coming. And so we're expecting that inflation is going to continue to be even sequentially a drag against us. And so yes, the volume is going to be there, but it's going to be offset somewhat by the mix and the inflation side. So that's why we're talking about the sequential enterprise operating margin being flattish. Operator: Our next question comes from Jeff Sprague from Vertical Research Partners. Jeffrey Sprague: My question kind of rhymed a little bit with one you just answered, but I was wondering if we could maybe just put a finer point on what the price cost headwind was in Q3 and specifically what you were expecting in Q4? And just trying to get a sense then, Christian, if you're taking this question, I assume you are, like how do we think about how you're jumping off into 2027 from a price/cost basis based on that Q4 answer? Christian Rothe: Sure. Jeff, I do -- the price cost side, obviously, we had -- we're calling it out that it was a headwind for us in Q3. We do expect that's going to be an area that should be positive for us in Q4, but it is against a rising inflation. So probably not going to dimensionalize exactly what the numbers were in the quarter, just to let you know, though, that in Q3, just to give that as an example, when we break out that core growth that we had year-over-year, volume was the biggest driver, mix was the second biggest driver, and there was just a small partial offset that happened from the price/cost negativity. So when we turn to the next quarter, again, we expect it's going to -- price/cost is going to be positive for us in the year-over-year. That's the important aspect. The sequential side, yes, we're expecting we're going to make some good progress with the price coming in, but the inflation is going to be higher still yet. Jeffrey Sprague: And I guess that implies then volume in Q4 is not as robust as what we saw in Q3, if I'm interpreting that correctly? Christian Rothe: I think it's -- you got to think about it from the mix side that's happening there, too. So when you have sequentials that with Software & Control, we're calling out flat sequentially, there will be some pricing in there sequentially. So the volume is going to be a tick less. But at the same time, we're still talking Software & Control being up teens year-over-year and expansion of margins by nearly 200 basis points on the segment margin for Software & Control. And obviously, those are tough comps that we're talking about in the fourth quarter. That is our toughest comp of the year in Q4. Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Buscaglia from BNP Paribas. Andrew Buscaglia: I wanted to touch on -- along those lines -- that line of questioning, Software & Control margins. You've done a lot of good work this year and you get those margins up even higher and organic growth has really picked up, but you're running into some pretty tough comps in 2027 and a really high bar for margins. I know you don't want to give 2027 guidance, but can you set us up for how you're thinking about Software & Control as we move into next year, just given the high bar we're looking at? Blake Moret: Sure. I'll make a few general comments about its position in the market, and then Christian can add some additional detail to that. But we're only just now getting to and through the units of controllers shipped that we were at pre-COVID. So there was a lot of volatility over the last 6 or 7 years. And so we're going to exceed the unit volume in Logix controllers, which drives a lot of the Software & Control performance this year. And so we're happy about that. But think about the underlying market growth, natural market growth that would have existed had it not been for these exogenous events that we get to plus gaining market share in these areas. And we do think that we're gaining market share in controllers. So while we're very happy with the growth and the performance, which doesn't just happen passively, it happens by innovative new designs and managing costs and deploying investment to the areas that we, with our knowledge of the market, believe are going to yield the greatest growth, there's a lot of opportunity. We're not hitting anything close to an asymptote of where we're not going to be able to continue to grow and to perform from a profitability standpoint. Christian Rothe: And then specific around Software & Control margins, yes, it's been a great story, right? The last 2 years has generated a lot of expansion in the Software & Control margins. And that's been predominantly driven by the volume side. Price has certainly been a big help. As we start thinking about 2027 and the setup on it, yes, the memory cost and inflation is going to hit that business hardest. There are pricing actions that we have taken. We'll continue to evaluate that. And as Blake had mentioned, we'll be dynamic around our response around that. The key, though, is that when we're talking about mid-30s almost segment operating margins and you're thinking about the pricing changes, to be able to get margin expansion off of the price alone, that's really hard to do when you're talking about that kind of inflation. At the same time, volume should be a help for us. We're -- it's early to give a view on where we exactly think we're going to be for '27. Obviously, that will be a quarter from now, we'll give that initial outlook. But we're talking about low 30s for total segment operating margin for Software & Control for the full year 2026. I think we have the opportunity to continue to build off of that. Andrew Buscaglia: Okay. Yes. And the other question I had was around kind of your 2 problem areas or weaker areas, Automotive and Food & Beverage are a big chunk of your sales, but both are indicating higher growth this quarter. I'm wondering how much of that is easy comps or true demand picking up in either one of those markets? Blake Moret: Yes. I think you should look at that as a positive read on demand as well as our offering. So Automotive in the teens is a good result. It's a good result last quarter as well, and we cited renewed -- some renewed project activity there. I'm not ready to call that the flood gates are open, but we've seen some nice wins beyond modernizations in new projects. The thing that drives the most spend in Automotive through the cycle is model changes. And as people are re-centering on hybrid and internal combustion vehicles that we're seeing some great wins as some of the big brand owners have standardized on our designs outside of our traditional end customers. Food & Beverage is our single biggest vertical. And even without CapEx, we're seeing mid-single-digit growth. So that's not bad where there is another gear to be had, so to speak, if CapEx does pick up there. And we're doing that through our domain expertise, our offering. And so people are going to continue to want to eat. And so we think it's a good long-term market to have such a strong position in. Operator: Our next question comes from Noah Kaye from Oppenheimer. Noah Kaye: Maybe we could sort of level set on where we're at in the production logistics growth strategy. We're some time now into the OTTO integration. You've continued to launch more offerings for orchestration production logistics. It feels like some increased wallet share capture is driving some of the outgrowth that we're seeing. But would just sort of love an update on how you see the integration and what the growth prospects look like? Blake Moret: Sure. I really like our position in so-called production logistics. In addition to the people who make their living moving parcels or packages around, production logistics as a part, especially of consumer packaged goods, is being seen by the customers as a really important and maybe previously overlooked area of additional productivity for them as they've added a lot of fixed automation in the make line, if you're making shampoo or packaging bread or what have you, but bringing the material, the packaging material, the components to the line and taking it away to the loading dock or into the warehouse, that's really where production logistics is focused in those areas. Independent cart technology plays a role in that. We're having a good year with iTRAK and MagneMotion. The autonomous mobile robots will see another year of strong double-digit growth. We continue to work on the profitability there, and we expect that we'll be profitable in Clearpath in the fourth quarter. But in addition to the consumer areas, you also see opportunities for this in semiconductor, for instance, with wafer transport in operations that previously used forklifts to take material over long distances. You see it in Life Sciences opportunities there. So we really think that we have the portfolio to be able to address this across multiple industries. And one of the things that's important is to make sure commercially, we have the right coverage in these areas. And so we've spent some time looking at making sure that the customers who are most interested in this have good commercial coverage by us and our partners. So it's a good area. I think to your question, we're early in the growth opportunity in production logistics, and we continue to build it out. Noah Kaye: And then just a follow-up question on CapEx trajectory. We're coming in around 3% of sales for the year here, as you said in your remarks. I think talking in the past about this potentially stepping up to 4% in coming years, you talked about the $2 billion of investments that you're making. Can you maybe just give us a refresh on the trajectory there? Should we be gearing up for that sort of 4%, that step-up next year? Christian Rothe: Yes. So we are expecting that next year we're going to be spending more CapEx than this year. But I do think we're still going to stay in that 4% or so. We do have greenfield project, obviously, that's happening in New Berlin, Wisconsin, will start making investments at pace as we turn and look at '27 that will take us into '28 as well. Now important, ROIC for us has actually recovered nicely. So even with that higher investment level, we still feel like that the trajectory is going to be good with ROIC. EBITDA is continuing to grow. So we're really liking the returns that we're getting right now on the legacy part of the organization, but also the investments that we're looking at for the future, we're feeling like they're going to have really strong ROI that's going to continue to be accretive to the organization. Aijana Zellner: Julianne, we well take one more question. Operator: Certainly. Our last question today will come from Joe Ritchie from Goldman Sachs. Joseph Ritchie: So just a lot covered today. I just have one question just around the S&C margins in the fourth quarter. So I think if I'm doing the math right, you're essentially forecasting 4Q S&C margins to be below 30%, so call it somewhere in the high 20s. I'm just wondering, is it possible to help bridge that, right? I know that there's -- you talked a little bit about price/cost. You talked a little bit about mix, but I'm just having a hard time bridging the sequential decline from 3Q to 4Q. Christian Rothe: No, we actually are -- we're not looking at it to be in the 20s in Q4. We're looking at it to be in the low 30s, that number actually is going to be probably closer to, let's say, 33-ish, which is about what the average is going to be for the full year, I think, if I'm looking at the numbers correctly. So yes, and again, that sequential side is really more of the inflation coming in with the volume or the top line being flat. So that's really how the math comes together. Aijana Zellner: That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining us today. Operator: At this time, you may disconnect. Before you buy stock in Rockwell Automation, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Rockwell Automation wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $411,427!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,335,252!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 965% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 215% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 11, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool recommends Rockwell Automation. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Rockwell Automation (ROK) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in Rockwell Automation, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Rockwell Automation exceeded expectations in Q3 fiscal 2026, with reported sales up 8%, organic sales up 10%, adjusted EPS rising more than 20% to $3.49, and enterprise operating margin expanding to 22.3%. Demand was strongest in semiconductors, data centers, e-commerce and warehouse automation. Software & Control organic sales grew 18%, while e-commerce and warehouse automation sales increased 30%; broader capital-spending recovery in food and beverage and some process industries remains limited. The company raised its full-year outlook for sales growth to 7.5%–9.5% and adjusted EPS to $13.00–$13.30, while maintaining its 21.5% operating-margin and 100% free-cash-flow-conversion targets. Inflation, memory costs and delayed large capital projects remain key risks. Prepare for the Next Wave of Factory Automation With These 3 Standout Names Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 results that exceeded its expectations, supported by double-digit organic sales growth, stronger earnings and broad demand in several automation markets. The company also raised its full-year sales and adjusted earnings outlook. Chairman and CEO Blake Moret said reported sales increased 8% from a year earlier, while organic sales rose 10%. The dissolution of Sensia reduced sales by 3%, while currency added roughly one percentage point of growth. Adjusted earnings per share were $3.49, up more than 20% year over year, and enterprise operating margin reached 22.3%. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling Buyback Capacity Is Rising Across 3 Soaring and Sinking Stocks “We delivered a strong quarter with double-digit year-over-year growth in sales and earnings exceeding our expectations,” Moret said. He cited Rockwell’s North American position, growing exposure to new end markets, product launches, partner network and operational execution. Rockwell said products outperformed its longer-cycle solutions businesses during the quarter, as smaller modernization projects supported growth across most industries. The company continues to see strong demand in semiconductor, data center, e-commerce and warehouse automation, while it has yet to see a broader recovery in capital spending across food and beverage and parts of process industries. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High These 5 Companies Just Made a Massive Bet on Themselves Intelligent Devices organic sales increased 10%, with growth across all product lines. Moret said newer products, including PointMax I/O, PowerFlex drives and FLEXLINE motor control centers, have seen strong adoption in e-commerce, warehouse automation and process applications. Software & Control organic sales rose 18%, driven by another quarter of double-digit growth in Logix. Lifecycle Services organic sales declined 2%, generally in line with management’s expectations, as the segment remained constrained by the absence of a broader capital-spending recovery in food and beverage and certain process markets. → No Hangover: Revisiting Microsoft One Week After Earnings Organic annual recurring revenue increased 6%, below Rockwell’s expectations. High-single-digit software growth was partly offset by slower recurring Lifecycle Services growth. Moret pointed to an expanded cybersecurity engagement with Unilever as an example of an ARR win, combining Rockwell’s threat detection and secure remote-access software with managed cybersecurity services. Discrete sales grew by the high teens year over year. E-commerce and warehouse automation sales increased 30%. Automotive sales rose by the low double digits. Life sciences sales increased 10%. Process sales increased by the high single digits, led by energy, metals and chemicals. North America grew 12% and was Rockwell’s strongest region in the quarter. Moret said data-center investment continued to create demand for power, cooling, automation and control systems. Rockwell participates in the market through power distribution, controls for chiller manufacturers and Logix controllers used in central utility plants, energy monitoring and backup-generator controls. He added that excluding data-center-related activity, Rockwell’s organic sales growth would still have been 8% during the quarter. CFO Christian Rothe said enterprise operating margin expanded 280 basis points year over year, driven by higher sales volume and favorable mix, partly offset by negative price-cost dynamics. The Sensia dissolution contributed about 40 basis points to enterprise operating margin. Gross margin increased 70 basis points to 49.5%, aided by volume, mix and the Sensia dissolution. Selling, general and administrative expense rose less than 1%, while engineering and development spending increased 5% and represented about 8% of sales. Segment margins were mixed. Intelligent Devices margin rose 120 basis points to 20%, while Software & Control margin expanded 320 basis points to 34.8%. Lifecycle Services margin increased 180 basis points to 15.1%, helped by project execution, productivity and the Sensia dissolution, though lower sales volume was a partial offset. Free cash flow was $654 million in the third quarter, $165 million above the prior-year period, primarily reflecting higher pre-tax income and working-capital management. Rothe said inflation remains an increasing headwind, particularly for memory and other inputs affected by data-center demand. Rockwell’s supply-chain focus is first on maintaining component availability and product shipments, followed by managing costs through pricing, productivity and supplier negotiations. The company implemented an inflation-related price increase late in the third quarter that it expects to be realized in the fourth quarter. For fiscal 2026, Rockwell continues to expect about 250 basis points of price realization, including roughly 100 basis points related to tariffs and 150 basis points from underlying pricing. Management expects tariffs to be earnings-neutral for the year, with pricing offsetting related costs. Rockwell increased its fiscal 2026 outlook for reported and organic sales growth to a range of 7.5% to 9.5%, up 150 basis points from its prior forecast. The midpoint of 8.5% assumes modest sequential growth in the fourth quarter, including a typical seasonal pickup in longer-cycle businesses within Lifecycle Services and Intelligent Devices. The company raised its adjusted EPS outlook to a range of $13.00 to $13.30, with a midpoint of $13.15, up $0.35 from the midpoint of its previous guidance. The midpoint represents approximately 25% growth from fiscal 2025. Rockwell maintained its expectation for enterprise operating margin of 21.5%, up 260 basis points year over year, and free-cash-flow conversion of 100%. It expects organic ARR to grow at a mid-single-digit rate. For the fourth quarter, management expects reported sales to rise by the low single digits sequentially, with enterprise operating margin roughly flat versus the third quarter. Rothe attributed the expected margin profile to higher inflation and an unfavorable seasonal mix, as configure-to-order and solutions sales reach their typical fourth-quarter peak. Looking beyond the current fiscal year, Moret said Rockwell sees continued opportunities in data centers, automotive, life sciences, production logistics, energy and manufacturing automation. He said larger capital projects remain delayed by customer caution, funding constraints, tariff uncertainty and contractual considerations, but modernization spending has remained resilient. “We like our position in the market,” Moret said, pointing to continued product introductions, productivity initiatives and Rockwell’s ability to support manufacturers seeking to expand automation. Rockwell Automation is a global industrial automation and digital transformation company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The firm designs, manufactures and supports control systems, industrial control hardware and software, and related services that help manufacturers and industrial operators automate processes, improve productivity and enable data-driven decision making. Rockwell traces its heritage to the Allen-Bradley and Rockwell automation businesses and positions itself as a provider of integrated automation solutions across discrete and process industries. The company's product portfolio includes programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), variable frequency drives, sensors, safety components and other industrial control hardware, often marketed under the Allen-Bradley brand. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Rockwell Automation Q3 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Rockwell Automation, Inc. ROK used its third-quarter fiscal 2026 call to emphasize that growth is spreading beyond data centers and semiconductor projects. Automotive and life sciences improved, while modernization spending remained resilient despite cautious large-project approvals. ROK’s third-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings of $3.49 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.39. Revenues of $2.31 billion also topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.25 billion by 2.50%. Rockwell Automation, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Rockwell Automation, Inc. Quote Chairman and CEO Blake Moret said customer investment is broadening across more end markets. Rockwell raised its fiscal 2026 reported and organic sales growth outlook to 7.5-9.5%. CFO Christian Rothe said the midpoint increased 150 basis points from the prior view. Adjusted earnings guidance rose to $13.00-$13.30 per share, with the $13.15 midpoint up 35 cents. For the fourth quarter, management expects reported sales to rise by low single digits sequentially and enterprise operating margin to remain roughly flat. Seasonal growth in solutions and configure-to-order products will create a less favorable mix. Moret said semiconductor, data center, and e-commerce and warehouse automation remained the strongest markets. E-commerce and warehouse automation sales rose 30%, while automotive increased by low double digits. Life sciences sales grew 10%, supported by activity at machine builders and end users. Food and beverage advanced by mid-single digits even without a recovery in major capital projects. During the Q&A, Moret said organic growth would still have been 8% excluding all data center-related business. He also highlighted competitive wins in automotive architecture, drug-substance manufacturing and data center controls. Rothe said price contributed about 1% to third-quarter organic growth. For fiscal 2026, Rockwell still expects roughly 250 basis points of price realization, including 100 basis points tied to tariffs and 150 basis points from underlying price. Tariff-related pricing is intended to offset tariff costs rather than expand earnings. An inflation-based price increase implemented late in the third quarter should benefit the fourth quarter. A Bank of America analyst pressed management on persistent cost pressure. Rothe said inflation remains a double-digit-million-dollar headwind in the second half and has increased since the prior quarter, with memory and other data center-related components contributing to the pressure. Enterprise operating margin reached 22.3%, up 280 basis points year over year. Gross margin expanded 70 basis points to 49.5%, while SG&A increased by less than 1%. Software & Control-led segment performance with 18% organic sales growth and a 34.8% operating margin. Intelligent Devices organic sales increased 10%, while its margin reached 20.0%. Organic ARR grew 6%, below expectations, as high-single-digit software growth was offset by slower recurring services. Lifecycle Services organic sales fell 2%, book-to-bill was 0.97 and segment margin reached 15.1%. A Bank of America analyst asked why services had not accelerated with overall growth. Moret cited cautious capital deployment, elevated approval thresholds, regional funding limits and customer efforts to secure project economics amid tariff and inflation volatility. A Morgan Stanley analyst asked whether short-cycle strength could persist into fiscal 2027. Moret pointed to broader growth, continued data center investment, renewed automotive and life sciences projects, new products and automation demand driven by labor constraints. Goldman Sachs challenged the implied fourth-quarter Software & Control margin. Rothe clarified that management expects about 33%, not a decline into the high 20s, with inflation offsetting flat sequential sales. Management's closing posture combined stronger demand with continued cost discipline. Moret emphasized new product adoption, market-share gains and productivity as the foundation for growth through a volatile pricing and geopolitical environment. Rockwell also plans higher capital spending in fiscal 2027, while keeping it near 4% of sales. Rothe said investments in the New Berlin, Wisconsin, greenfield project will accelerate while returns on invested capital remain a priority. ROK carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. Its Growth Score of B, Momentum Score of A and VGM Score of B point to favorable growth and momentum characteristics, while the Value Score of D reflects a weaker value profile. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. The Style Scores are designed to complement the Zacks Rank, with A and B grades stronger than lower grades. The current mix is balanced rather than uniformly favorable, and the Zacks Rank can change as earnings estimates are revised after the reported results. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Rockwell Automation, Inc. (ROK) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: August 04, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Rockwell Automation Inc (NYSE:ROK) delivered a strong quarter with double-digit year-over-year growth in sales and earnings, exceeding expectations. Organic sales grew 10% year-over-year, driven by strong demand across semiconductor, data center, e-commerce, and warehouse automation. Software and Control segment saw organic sales up 18% year-over-year, with strong double-digit growth in Logix controllers. Enterprise operating margin expanded 280 basis points year-over-year to 22.3%, with adjusted EPS of $3.49, up over 20%. The company raised its full-year fiscal 2026 guidance for both reported and organic sales growth to 7.5%-9.5% and adjusted EPS to $13.00-$13.30. Inflation remains a growing headwind, with costs increasing sequentially and impacting margins, particularly in the Software and Control segment. Lifecycle Services organic sales declined 2% year-over-year, constrained by lack of capital spending recovery in food and beverage and certain process industries. Organic annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew only 6% in the quarter, below expectations, due to slower growth in recurring lifecycle services. Core price cost was unfavorable in Q3, reflecting rising costs and timing of price increases, though expected to turn positive in Q4. Large capital projects remain sluggish, with customers delaying investments due to geopolitical volatility, trade uncertainty, and funding constraints, particularly in mining and Latin America. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Signs with ROK. Is ROK fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: Can you walk us through the price expectations for the full year, specifically the breakdown between tariff-based pricing and underlying price, and how the mechanics work if tariffs are removed?A: Christian Rossi (CFO) clarified that the full-year 2026 guidance includes approximately 250 basis points of price realization, with 100 basis points from tariff-related pricing and 150 basis points from underlying price. In Q3, tariff-based price contributed 1% while underlying price was close to nil due to the timing of price increases. An inflationary price change implemented late in Q3 will be realized in Q4. The tariff-based pricing is designed to create EPS neutrality around tariff-related costs, so it is not incremental to conversion. Q: How are you thinking about inflation and pricing over the next 6-12 months, and what structural countermeasures are you taking to adapt to a persistent inflationary environment?A: Christian Rossi (CFO) noted that inflation is a growing headwind, starting with memory costs and expanding due to data center demand. The company's priority is ensuring component availability to ship product. Inflation has increased from single-digit millions in Q1 to a higher double-digit million headwind in the second half. Blake Moretz (CEO) added that structural changes from prior supply chain shortages, such as fixed discount methodologies for faster price realization and alternate sourcing to introduce competition, are helping mitigate the impact. Q: Can you elaborate on the improvement seen in automotive and life sciences markets, and why these markets are unlocking now?A: Blake Moretz (CEO) reported renewed strengthening in automotive and life sciences, which are not related to data center spend, indicating broad-based growth. In automotive, green shoots of new projects are emerging as manufacturers recenter on hybrid and internal combustion vehicles, with competitive wins on architecture standardization globally. In life sciences, marquee programs like GLP-1 drug rollouts and oral solid dose variants are driving automation demand, with important competitive wins in drug substance manufacturing. Excluding data center-related growth, organic growth would still have been 8% in the quarter. Q: How do you see the short-cycle and large capital project businesses tracking into fiscal 2027, and can the momentum be sustained?A: Blake Moretz (CEO) stated that tailwinds from growing verticals like data center, energy, and renewed automotive and life sciences investments are expected to continue. He noted that the traditional cycle of short-cycle growth followed by longer-cycle process recovery is harder to pin down due to COVID reverberations and data center power requirements. Key drivers include labor cost shortages driving automation, new product introductions gaining share, aggressive productivity, and continued pricing actions to offset persistent inflation and tariff volatility. Q: Can you provide more detail on the Q3 price-cost headwind and expectations for Q4, and how that sets up the jump off into 2027?A: Christian Rossi (CFO) confirmed that price-cost was a headwind in Q3, but expects it to be positive in Q4 year-over-year. In Q3, volume was the biggest driver of core growth, followed by mix, with a small partial offset from price-cost negativity. For Q4, price-cost is expected to be positive year-over-year, but sequentially, inflation will still be higher. The company is not providing specific 2027 guidance yet, but will continue to manage inflation through pricing and productivity actions. Q: Given the high bar for software and control margins, how are you thinking about this segment's performance into 2027?A: Blake Moretz (CEO) noted that the company is only now exceeding pre-COVID controller unit volumes, which drives software and control performance, and believes they are gaining market share. Christian Rossi (CFO) added that while memory costs and inflation will hit this segment hardest, pricing actions and volume should help. The segment is expected to deliver low 30s operating margins for full-year 2026, with opportunity to build off that, though it's early to give a specific 2027 outlook. Q: Can you provide an update on the production logistics growth strategy and the integration of recent acquisitions?A: Blake Moretz (CEO) expressed confidence in the production logistics position, highlighting growth in independent cart technology (iTrack and MagnaMotion) and mobile robots, with ClearPath expected to be profitable in Q4. Opportunities span consumer packaged goods, semiconductor wafer transport, and life sciences. The company is ensuring commercial coverage in these areas and believes it is still early in the production logistics build-out. Q: What is the CapEx trajectory for fiscal 2027, and should we expect a step up to 4% of sales?A: Christian Rossi (CFO) confirmed that CapEx will be higher next year, staying around 4% of sales, driven by the greenfield project in New Berlin, Wisconsin, with investments ramping in 2027 and continuing into 2028. Despite higher investment, ROIC has recovered nicely, and the company expects strong returns on both legacy and future investments. Q: Can you bridge the sequential decline in software and control margins from Q3 to Q4?A: Christian Rossi (CFO) clarified that Q4 software and control margins are expected to be in the low 30s, around 33%, not the high 20s. The sequential decline is driven by inflation coming in while top-line volume is flat. This is consistent with the full-year average for the segment. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Rockwell Automation (ROK) came out with quarterly earnings of $3.49 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.39 per share. This compares to earnings of $2.82 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +2.95%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this industrial equipment and software maker would post earnings of $2.89 per share when it actually produced earnings of $3.3, delivering a surprise of +14.19%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times. Rockwell Automation, which belongs to the Zacks Electronics - Miscellaneous Products industry, posted revenues of $2.31 billion for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.54%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $2.14 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Rockwell Automation shares have added about 23.6% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 11%. While Rockwell Automation has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Rockwell Automation was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $3.64 on $2.38 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and $13.06 on $8.97 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Electronics - Miscellaneous Products is currently in the top 19% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp. (DFLI), another stock in the same industry, has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 6. This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.34 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +94.1%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp.'s revenues are expected to be $13.18 million, down 18.9% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Rockwell Automation, Inc. (ROK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp. (DFLI) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE:ROK) reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 results that topped Wall Street expectations, but the company’s shares fell more than 4% in pre-market trading as investors focused on its updated earnings outlook. Although revenue and profit exceeded forecasts, the guidance failed to generate enthusiasm in the market. Rockwell Automation posted adjusted earnings of $3.49 per share, ahead of the analyst consensus estimate of $3.38. Revenue increased 8% year over year to $2.31 billion, beating market expectations of $2.24 billion. Organic sales climbed 10%, supported by continued strength in the semiconductor, data center and warehouse automation markets, alongside improving demand from automotive and life sciences customers. The company revised its fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings guidance to a range of $13.00 to $13.30 per share. While the updated midpoint of $13.15 remained broadly in line with expectations, investors appeared disappointed by the outlook, contributing to the decline in the stock despite the stronger quarterly performance. Rockwell also increased its full-year sales growth forecast, now expecting reported and organic sales growth of between 7.5% and 9.5%, compared with its previous outlook of 5% to 9%. Full-year revenue is projected to reach approximately $9.0 billion. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Blake Moret said the company’s performance reflected improving market conditions and operational discipline. “Our strong third-quarter performance reflects healthy customer demand, an accelerated pace of innovation, and disciplined execution,” said Blake Moret, Chairman and CEO. “Our 10% organic sales growth, combined with favorable mix and operational discipline, yielded double-digit earnings growth and expanded margins.” Enterprise operating margin expanded to 22.3% during the quarter, compared with 19.5% a year earlier. On a GAAP basis, diluted earnings per share rose 40% year over year to $3.65 from $2.60. The company also completed the dissolution of its Sensia joint venture on April 1. The Software & Control division delivered the strongest performance, with revenue increasing 19% year over year to $751 million. Sales in the Intelligent Devices segment rose 12% to $1.08 billion, while Lifecycle Services revenue declined 12% to $482 million, primarily reflecting the impact of recent divestitures. Rockwell Automation stock price

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Organic growth of 10% was primarily driven by smaller modernization projects and strong demand in Semiconductor, Data Center, and E-commerce verticals. Management attributes the outperformance in Software & Control to double-digit growth in Logix controllers, which are increasingly replacing traditional DDC units in data center utility plants. The dissolution of the Sensia joint venture was completed on schedule, contributing approximately 40 basis points to enterprise operating margin expansion. While large greenfield projects remain delayed by geopolitical uncertainty and high decision-making thresholds, the company is seeing 'green shoots' in Automotive and Life Sciences. The Rockwell Operating Model successfully drove high-50s incremental margins on an as-reported basis through disciplined execution and favorable product mix. Growth in Lifecycle Services remains constrained by a lack of capital spending recovery in the Food & Beverage and process industries. Management highlighted the Singapore manufacturing facility's recognition as a World Economic Forum Lighthouse, validating their leadership in AI-enabled manufacturing. Full-year organic sales growth guidance was raised to 7.5% to 9.5%, reflecting Q3 outperformance and higher expectations for seasonal Q4 volume. Q4 guidance assumes flat sequential margins due to an unfavorable mix of longer-cycle solutions and rising inflation in components like memory. Management expects to realize 250 basis points of price for the full year, with 100 basis points specifically tied to achieving EPS neutrality regarding tariffs. Strategic focus for fiscal 2027 includes navigating persistent inflation and geopolitical volatility while capitalizing on labor shortages that drive automation demand. Capital expenditures are expected to step up toward 4% of sales in coming years to fund greenfield investments like the New Berlin, Wisconsin facility. Inflation is identified as a growing headwind, moving from a single-digit million impact earlier in the year to a double-digit million impact in the second half. The company implemented a late-Q3 price increase to mitigate rising material costs, with the full benefit expected to materialize in Q4. Tax remains a headwind to adjusted EPS, largely driven by the implementation of BEPS Pillar Two global minimum tax requirements. Organic annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew 6%, which was below management expectations due to slower growth in recurring Lifecycle Services. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management clarified that 100 basis points of their 250-basis-point price target is specifically designed to offset tariff costs, aiming for EPS neutrality rather than margin expansion. Underlying price realization was near zero in Q3 due to timing, but an inflationary price increase implemented late in the quarter will drive Q4 gains. Plex is delivering high single-digit ARR growth and successfully expanding beyond automotive into consumer-packaged goods. The platform is being integrated with mobile robot fleet management to provide 'orchestration' across the factory floor. Growth is driven by both strong market fundamentals and Rockwell's penetration into power distribution and modular control systems. Hyperscalers are increasingly standardizing on Rockwell's Logix architecture for central utility plants to improve speed to capacity. Management expects the Clearpath autonomous mobile robot business to reach profitability in the fourth quarter. The segment is seeing early-stage growth opportunities in semiconductor wafer transport and Life Sciences applications.

Rockwell Automation (ROK) reported $2.31 billion in revenue for the quarter ended June 2026, representing a year-over-year increase of 7.9%. EPS of $3.49 for the same period compares to $2.82 a year ago. The reported revenue compares to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.26 billion, representing a surprise of +2.54%. The company delivered an EPS surprise of +2.95%, with the consensus EPS estimate being $3.39. While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health. Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance. Here is how Rockwell Automation performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: Organic Sales - Total Growth: 10% versus the four-analyst average estimate of 6.6%. Sales- Intelligent Devices: $1.08 billion versus the four-analyst average estimate of $1.04 billion. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +11.6%. Sales- Lifecycle Services: $482 million compared to the $504.73 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of -11.9% year over year. Sales- Software & Control: $751 million compared to the $700.02 million average estimate based on four analysts. The reported number represents a change of +19.4% year over year. Operating earnings- Intelligent Devices: $216 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $217.63 million. Operating earnings- Lifecycle Services: $73 million versus $76.73 million estimated by three analysts on average. Operating earnings- Software & Control: $261 million compared to the $234.53 million average estimate based on three analysts. View all Key Company Metrics for Rockwell Automation here>>> Shares of Rockwell Automation have returned -0.4% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +1.7% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), indicating that it could perform in line with the broader market in the near term. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Rockwell Automation, Inc. (ROK) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research