(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)Siemens AG (NYSE:
SI), Europe's largest engineering company, is scheduled to release its fourth quarter financial results on Thursday, December 9, 2009. Analysts currently expect the company to report earnings of $1.40 per share on revenue of $4.44 billion. In the year ago period, Siemens reported a loss of euro2.4 billion on revenue of euro21.7 billion.
Siemens AG operates in six segments: Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Siemens IT Solutions, Services and Siemens Financial Services (SFS), and Equity Investments. Industry, Energy and Healthcare segments are reported along with 14 divisions, which comprise the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies, Building Technologies, Osram, Industry Solutions and Mobility belonging to the Industry Sector, the divisions Fossil Power Generation, Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, Power Transmission and Power Distribution belonging to the Energy Sector, and the Divisions Imaging & Information Technology (IT), Workflow & Solutions and Diagnostics belonging to the Healthcare Sector. In fiscal 2008, Siemens had revenue of €77.3 billion and a net income of €5.9 billion.
In September, Siemens CEO said that the firm is seeing the first signals of the end of the recession, but the rebound will be slow. The company's third-quarter net income declined to EUR 1.32 billion or EUR 1.45 per share from EUR 1.42 billion or EUR 1.55 per share in the comparable period. Income from continuing operations for the current quarter descended to EUR 1.22 billion from EUR 1.475 billion last year. Quarterly revenue slumped to EUR 18.35 billion from EUR 19.18 billion in the prior year period.
The Munich, Germany-based company has registered strong growth in its green portfolio. Last month, Siemens said that in fiscal 2009 it generated revenue of €23 billion with products and solutions from its Environmental Portfolio. The green portfolio has grown by 11 percent by comparison with fiscal 2008, when its revenue – calculated on a comparable basis – totaled just €20.7 billion.
Late in September, the German industrial conglomerate Siemens reaffirmed the firm's fiscal-year outlook. The company is aiming for an operating profit above the 6.6 billion euros it posted last year in core segments and income growth is expected to exceed profit growth in the firm's main sectors. Order intake in the fourth quarter is expected to reach third-quarter levels. The company also said that a program to cut sales and administrative costs in its health care operations is on schedule.
Early this year, Siemens said it expects governments of the world's 20 largest economies to spend about $430 billion (euro306 billion) in the next several years to improve infrastructure such as power grids and transportation networks to become more efficient and environmentally friendly. Siemens said it hoped to benefit from the trend and to increase the environmental portfolio's revenue to euro25 billion by 2011.
In October, Siemens acquired solar thermal power company Solel Solar Systems to expand its renewable energy operations. Solel had almost $90 million in revenue during the first half.
Meanwhile, according to media reports, the company's hearing aid business, valued at as much as 3 billion euros ($4.5 billion), is drawing interest from private-equity firms including KKR & Co. L.P. and BC Partners Ltd.
In terms of stock performance, Siemens shares are up about 31% year to date. Shares of the company rose $3.45 or 3.50% to $102.07 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
Disclosure: Author doesn't own any of the stocks discussed here.
