Rockwell Automation profit falls, cuts forecast

BOSTON (Reuters) - Rockwell Automation Inc (ROK.N) said on Tuesday third-quarter profit fell 7.1 percent and cut its earnings forecast, citing weakening demand in the United States and Europe for its products, which help factories run more smoothly.

The Milwaukee-based company said it now expects full-year profit per share to come to $4.00 to $4.10. Last month it warned investors that demand for its high-margin software products was deteriorating and that it no longer expected to hit its target of $4.25 to $4.45.

Analysts, on average, were now looking for full-year earnings of $4.01 per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

"Macroeconomic conditions in Europe and the U.S. are weakening," said Keith Nosbusch, Rockwell's chairman and chief executive, in a statement. "We have begun to see a change in buying behavior by some of our customers in consumer-related industries, including project delays and curtailed capital spending."

The U.S. manufacturer said profit for the fiscal third quarter ended June 30 came to $152.6 million, or $1.03 per diluted share. For the year-earlier period, it had reported earnings of $164.2 million, or $1.05 per diluted share.

Analysts, on average, had looked for third-quarter profit of 97 cents per share.

Rockwell shares are down about 37 percent so far this year, a much steeper drop than the roughly 18 percent slide of the Standard & Poor's capital goods index .GSPIC.

(Reporting by Scott Malone, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Gerald E. McCormick)