Rockwell Automation Guides 6-9% Organic Growth on Record Orders

Rockwell Automation expects organic growth of 6% to 9% in fiscal 2027, Chairman and CEO Blake Moret told investors at a Baird event. The outlook rests on surging demand for automation equipment, three points of pricing contribution and a potential return of acquisitions — a plan Moret himself characterized as prudent.

The guidance caps a fiscal 2026 in which Rockwell repeatedly raised its bar. The company began the year guiding 2% to 6% organic growth; by August that range had climbed to 7.5% to 9.5%, according to Baird Senior Research Analyst Quinn Fredrickson. Moret said data centers, semiconductors, automotive and life sciences all exceeded expectations. Automotive, roughly 10% of revenue, strengthened particularly late in the year. Pharmaceutical demand drew support from GLP-1 drugs, though he described life sciences strength as broad-based.

What is driving the orders pipeline?

Orders, not restocking, underpin the outlook. Moret said fiscal 2026 orders for new U.S. physical plant capacity were the highest Rockwell has seen to date, and the pipeline entering fiscal 2027 is larger than a year earlier. Fourth-quarter orders grew at a mid-teens rate, and the first quarter has started well, he said.

Pricing adds a further layer. Fiscal 2027 guidance includes three percentage points of price contribution but excludes a planned December price increase, meaning additional upside. Moret identified memory as a major source of cost inflation, though he said the company has largely stayed ahead of memory supply shortages.

On the demand side, the picture is more mixed. Matheus Bulho, senior vice president of Software and Control, said higher IT infrastructure costs suppressed some demand in Lifecycle Services, including network monitoring and industrial data center projects. He flagged no significant business-continuity concern.

Moret, for his part, said Rockwell has not seen broader demand destruction from pricing. He cited 25% fourth-quarter growth in Logix, its control platform, attributing it to underlying demand and pricing rather than customer restocking.

How does software change the growth story?

Bulho outlined a software-defined automation strategy designed to lift demand by enabling more frequent updates and extending Logix into applications it has not traditionally served, including mobile robots. Most deployments will still use traditional industrial hardware, even as software becomes more pervasive, he said.

At the upcoming Automation Fair, Rockwell plans to show FactoryTalk Conductor, an offering that uses agents (software components that perform tasks autonomously) to speed integration and operation of control systems. Moret said the product creates a new recurring revenue stream while potentially increasing demand for existing hardware and software.

The recurring revenue base — roughly $1 billion today — carries guidance of 7% growth in fiscal 2027, though Moret wants it to grow faster over time. New software launches now favor recurring revenue models over perpetual licenses. Bulho added that AI is lifting employee productivity, particularly in software development, letting Rockwell introduce more innovation with virtually the same staff.

What do margins and M&A imply for the P&L?

Fredrickson noted the fiscal 2027 guidance implies about 80 basis points of enterprise operating margin expansion (one basis point equals 0.01 percentage point). Moret said pricing not included in the outlook could provide upside, while unusual inflation or greater tariff volatility present the main risks.

Inorganic growth should return in the coming year, Moret said. Rockwell's acquisition priorities are specific: profitable hardware businesses that increase share in Europe or Asia, fit with its U.S. distribution network, and add to earnings per share in the first year.

For finance teams tracking industrial capex, the numbers tell a clear story. Record plant-capacity orders, mid-teens order growth and 25% Logix growth suggest manufacturers are committing budgets to automation — a signal that demand strength, not inventory cycles, sits behind the guidance.