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Schneider electric boosts outlook again after data-center demand lifts sales
Data-centre demand more than doubled, driving record quarterly revenue. The company expects demand to remain strong in the fourth quarter
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Schneider Electric lifted its annual targets for the second time this year after data-center orders kept flowing in, boosting sales for the third quarter.
The French engineering group said Friday that it is targeting organic growth in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortization to range from 18% to 21% this year, up from a previous goal—which had been upgraded in July—of between 14% and 19%.
Schneider raised its full-year expectations for both organic revenue growth—now projected at 12% to 14%—and profitability. It forecast an expansion in its adjusted Ebita margin of between one percentage point and 120 basis points on an organic basis.
The company anticipates data-center demand to remain strong in the fourth quarter, with continuing pricing momentum offsetting the hit of raw-material inflation and tariffs for the year as a whole.
Like other electrical-equipment suppliers, Schneider has been riding a wave of demand for products in data centers sparked by artificial intelligence, and has moved to redeploy the windfall to dealmaking. It struck a $22.6 billion deal to buy U.S. industrial-software maker PTC earlier this month, launched a $1.35 billion takeover bid for smart-device maker Shelly Group last month, and agreed to acquire AI software provider Cognite Holding for $3.1 billion in June.
Data-center demand more than doubled last quarter and helped drive Schneider’s revenue to what the company called a record high for any quarter.
The company said third-quarter revenue was 11.46 billion euros ($12.86 billion), up 18% compared with the year-earlier period. On an organic basis, revenue grew 17%, it said.
The results exceeded analysts’ expectations of 11.13 billion euros in revenue and organic growth of 14%, according to consensus estimates provided by the company.
“As expected, data centers remained a key growth driver as we continue to execute on our backlog while seeing triple-digit demand growth in the quarter, providing increasing visibility into 2027 and 2028,” Schneider Chief Executive Olivier Blum said. “More broadly, demand remained healthy across all four end-markets, supporting another record backlog at quarter-end.”
Write to Adrià Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com
