Industrials automation company Rockwell (NYSE:ROK) reported Q1 CY2026 results topping the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 11.9% year on year to $2.24 billion. The company expects the full year’s revenue to be around $8.9 billion, close to analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $3.30 per share was 14.5% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Rockwell Automation (ROK) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $2.24 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.16 billion (11.9% year-on-year growth, 3.8% beat)
- Adjusted EPS: $3.30 vs analyst estimates of $2.88 (14.5% beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $550 million vs analyst estimates of $488.6 million (24.6% margin, 12.6% beat)
- The company lifted its revenue guidance for the full year to $8.9 billion at the midpoint from $8.8 billion, a 1.1% increase
- Management raised its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $12.80 at the midpoint, a 8.5% increase
- Operating Margin: 22.5%, up from 17% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 12.3%, up from 8.5% in the same quarter last year
- Organic Revenue rose 9% year on year (beat)
- Market Capitalization: $44.98 billion
Company Overview
One of the first companies to address industrial automation, Rockwell Automation (NYSE:ROK) sells products that help customers extract more efficiency from their machinery.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Unfortunately, Rockwell Automation’s 6.9% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was mediocre. This fell short of our benchmark for the industrials sector and is a rough starting point for our analysis.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss cycles, industry trends, or a company capitalizing on catalysts such as a new contract win or a successful product line. Rockwell Automation’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its revenue was flat over the last two years. 
We can better understand the company’s sales dynamics by analyzing its organic revenue, which strips out one-time events like acquisitions and currency fluctuations that don’t accurately reflect its fundamentals. Over the last two years, Rockwell Automation’s organic revenue was flat. Because this number aligns with its two-year revenue growth, we can see the company’s core operations (not acquisitions and divestitures) drove most of its results. 
This quarter, Rockwell Automation reported year-on-year revenue growth of 11.9%, and its $2.24 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 3.8%.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 3.9% over the next 12 months. Although this projection indicates its newer products and services will catalyze better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.
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Operating Margin
Operating margin is an important measure of profitability as it shows the portion of revenue left after accounting for all core expenses – everything from the cost of goods sold to advertising and wages. It’s also useful for comparing profitability across companies with different levels of debt and tax rates because it excludes interest and taxes.
Rockwell Automation has been a well-oiled machine over the last five years. It demonstrated elite profitability for an industrials business, boasting an average operating margin of 17.2%. This result isn’t surprising as its high gross margin gives it a favorable starting point.
Analyzing the trend in its profitability, Rockwell Automation’s operating margin rose by 3.8 percentage points over the last five years, as its sales growth gave it operating leverage.
This quarter, Rockwell Automation generated an operating margin profit margin of 22.5%, up 5.5 percentage points year on year. The increase was driven by stronger leverage on its cost of sales (not higher efficiency with its operating expenses), as indicated by its larger rise in gross margin.
Earnings Per Share
Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.
Rockwell Automation’s EPS grew at 9% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 6.9% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.
Diving into the nuances of Rockwell Automation’s earnings can give us a better understanding of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Rockwell Automation’s operating margin expanded by 3.8 percentage points over the last five years. On top of that, its share count shrank by 3.8%. These are positive signs for shareholders because improving profitability and share buybacks turbocharge EPS growth relative to revenue growth. 
Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.
For Rockwell Automation, its two-year annual EPS growth of 4.5% was lower than its five-year trend. We hope its growth can accelerate in the future.
In Q1, Rockwell Automation reported adjusted EPS of $3.30, up from $2.45 in the same quarter last year. This print easily cleared analysts’ estimates, and shareholders should be content with the results. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Rockwell Automation’s full-year EPS of $12.21 to grow 4.7%.
Key Takeaways from Rockwell Automation’s Q1 Results
We were impressed by how significantly Rockwell Automation blew past analysts’ organic revenue expectations this quarter. We were also excited its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. Zooming out, we think this was a solid print. The stock traded up 9% to $436.50 immediately after reporting.
Rockwell Automation put up rock-solid earnings, but one quarter doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).