Shares of ABB Ltd. were gaining around 6 percent in the morning trading in Switzerland after the Swiss engineering company on Thursday reported higher Operational EBITA, a key earnings metric, in its first quarter. Meanwhile, net profit and orders were lower and revenues were nearly flat. The company said its order intake for the first quarter was better than expected.

Looking ahead for the second quarter, the company anticipates a mid-single digit comparable revenue growth year-on-year and the Operational EBITA margin to be slightly higher than in the first quarter 2024.

Further, ABB now expects fiscal 2024 operational EBITA margin of about 18 percent, while previously it expected slight improvement from the 2023 level of 16.9 percent. ABB continues to expect comparable revenue growth to be about 5 percent for the year.

Bjorn Rosengren, CEO, said, “Against high comparables, our Q1 performance shows the year has started off well with stronger than expected order momentum, record-high margin and strong cash delivery. This makes us confident to nudge up our margin expectation for 2024.”

In its first quarter, ABB’s net income attributable was $905 million, down 13 percent from last year’s $1.04 billion. Basic earnings per share fell 12 percent to $0.49 from $0.56 a year ago. The net income were lower as last year’s results were benefited by low tax rate.

Income from operations, however, grew 2 percent year-on-year to $1.22 billion. Margin on Income from operations was 15.5 percent, up by 30 basis points year-on-year.

Operational EBITA grew 11 percent to $1.42 billion. Operational EBITA margin improved 1.6 percentage points from last year to 17.9 percent. Gross profit improved 8 percent from the prior year to $2.94 billion and gross margin grew 2.7 percentage points to 37.3 percent, supported by a positive development in all business areas.

Revenues remained stable at $7.87 billion, compared to prior year’s $7.86 billion. Strong growth in Electrification and Process Automation were offset by weakness in Motion and Robotics & Discrete Automation.

Revenues were up 2 percent on a comparable basis, with comparable growth supported in equal parts by price and volumes.

Orders fell 5 percent to $8.97 billion from last year’s $9.45 billion. On a comparable basis, orders declined 4 percent.

Orders in the Americas dropped by 3 percent as a positive comparable development in the United States was offset by declines elsewhere and mainly due to the timing of large orders. Europe declined by 8 percent weighed down by important markets like Germany and Italy. Asia, Middle East and Africa orders fell 4 percent as strong comparable development in countries like India, Japan and Australia were offset by a sharp decline in China.

In Switzerland, ABB shares were trading at 44.09 Swiss francs, up 5.7 percent.

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