LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Philips surged on Monday as its second-quarter results beat analysts' expectations, driven mainly by growth in North America, and the Dutch medical device maker reiterated its outlook for the year.
Group sales rose 2% on the same period a year earlier to €4.5bn, with comparable order intake up 9%.

Meanwhile, income from operations grew to €816m from €221m. Philips said this was due in part to the €538m insurance income related to the Respironics product liability claims.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax and amortisation rose to €495m from €453m, coming in ahead of economists' expectations of €433m.

Chief executive Roy Jakobs said: "I am encouraged by our return to order intake growth this quarter, primarily driven by North America. Within a challenging macro environment we achieved strong margin improvement, supported by our productivity program, solid operational cashflow due to improved working capital management and comparable sales growth in line with our plan.

"Performance improvement was driven by progress on our execution priorities and industry-leading innovations. These included FDAcleared AI tools within our next-generation cardiovascular ultrasound platform to increase automation and productivity. We continue to focus on enhancing execution, improving end-to-end supply chain resilience and increasing agility and productivity through simplifying our operating model. Patient safety and quality remains our number one priority."

For the full year 2024, Philips said it continues to expect 3% to 5% comparable sales growth, an adjusted EBITA margin of 11% to 11.5% and free cash flow of €0.9bn to €1.1bn.

At 1320 BST, the shares were up 11% at €26.36.

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