Atlas Copco shares fall 7% after Q2 profit miss and order decline

Swedish industrial group Atlas Copco ATCO_A reported on Friday a second-quarter adjusted operating profit below market expectations and a decline in orders, sending its shares down 7%.

Operating profit, before items affecting comparability, fell to 8.41 billion Swedish crowns ($870.30 million) for the April-June period against a year-earlier 9.79 billion crowns. Analysts were expecting 8.66 billion on average, LSEG data showed.

"While the outlook for the global economy continues to be uncertain, Atlas Copco Group expects that the customer activity will remain at the current level," the maker of air treatment systems, construction gear and power tools said in a statement.

Shares in the company dropped 7.6% at 1130 GMT after they were down less than 1% ahead of the report.

Atlas Copco's order intake fell 8%, or 1% on an organic basis, to 40.1 billion Swedish crowns in the second quarter, mainly due to a negative currency effect, the group said in a statement.

In Europe, the orders fell by 2%, while in North America, which accounted for slightly more than a quarter of the group's revenue and order intake last year, they were unchanged.