Yaskawa cuts operating profit forecast to 57,500 million yen, raises net profit outlook
Key Facts
Japan's Yaskawa Electric cut its annual operating profit forecast to 57,500 million yen from 60,000 million yen while raising its net profit estimate, according to its earnings release issued on October 9, 2026. The company now expects profit attributable to shareholders of 47,500 million yen, compared with a previous estimate of 47,000 million yen. It also raised its annual revenue forecast to 600,000 million yen from its previous target of 580,000 million yen. Management attributed the revision to the positive impact of a weaker yen on revenue, offset by the impact of implementing an enterprise resource planning system on production and shipments. The revision thus combines expectations for higher sales and net profit with lower projected earnings from operations.
First-half revenue rose to 285,598 million yen, up 9.8% year on year, according to the company's official financial disclosure. Operating profit, however, fell 5.5% to 22,058 million yen over the same period, despite higher sales compared with the first half of the previous year. Profit attributable to owners of the parent rose to 18,988 million yen, an annual increase of 4.1%, diverging from the direction of operating profit. In terms of comparisons with analyst forecasts, an analysis published by Seeking Alpha said revenue for the period exceeded consensus estimates by 3.2%. The analysis added that revenue and operating profit "beat consensus estimates by 3.2% and 9.2%, respectively," putting operating profit above expectations despite its year-on-year decline.
By segment, motion control revenue rose to about 137.3 billion yen in the first half from 112.8 billion yen in the comparable period, according to the official earnings presentation. Revenue in the business grew 21.7% year on year, outpacing the company's overall revenue growth. The segment posted operating profit of about 16 billion yen, up 32.8% from the first half of the previous fiscal year. Its operating margin also rose to 11.6% from 10.7%, alongside growth in sales and profit. In robotics, operating profit fell 43.3% to about 6 billion yen, while the margin declined to 5.0% from 8.8%, contrasting with improved motion control profitability.
The results fell within what Yaskawa calls fiscal 2026, which ends in February 2027, according to the company's investor relations library. The first-half figures therefore cover part of a fiscal year that ends in the following calendar year. The revised revenue and profit forecasts also apply to the same fiscal year, according to the forecast revision table. On demand during its second quarter, the company reported a 38% increase in orders compared with the same period a year earlier. Orders also rose 13% from the previous quarter, according to the official earnings presentation, registering growth on both an annual and a quarterly basis.
In subsequent coverage of the earnings announcement, Investing.com reported that Yaskawa shares rose 2.0% in Tuesday trading, in a report published on October 13, 2026. The share price cited in that report was 4,879 yen, following the company's announcement of its results and revised forecasts. The website then reported, in an article published on October 20, 2026, that Goldman Sachs had downgraded the company's shares from "Buy" to "Neutral." The rating change included a cut in the price target to 5,000 yen from the previous level of 5,500 yen. The Goldman Sachs update came after the gain cited in the market report and after the revision that combined a higher net profit forecast with a lower operating profit forecast.
The investor relations library lists the third-quarter earnings announcement in January 2027 as the next quarterly disclosure on Yaskawa's earnings schedule. The announcement will cover the third quarter of the fiscal year the company labels 2026, according to the sequence of periods in its library. That fiscal year ends in February 2027, after the scheduled third-quarter earnings announcement. The company has set its annual earnings announcement for April 2027 among the published dates for upcoming disclosures. Under this schedule, the full-year results presentation follows the end of the fiscal period, preceded by the January announcement covering third-quarter results.