Germany's Siemens issues 2014 profit warning

German engineering giant Siemens said today that it no longer expected to reach a profit margin of at least 12 percent by the 2014 business year.
The company in a statement cited "lower market expectations" for the profit warning but insisted that its cost-cutting measures were largely on track.
The company is due to report its third-quarter results next Thursday.
In May, it trimmed its full-year targets as it posted mixed second quarter numbers, with a boost in orders but problems in the areas of revenues and profit.
Siemens, which runs its business year from October to September, said at the time that orders rose by 20 percent to 21.45 billion euros in the period from January to March. But revenues were down 7.0 percent at 18.011 billion euros.

Net profit grew by 10 percent to 1.03 billion euros, falling short of analysts' expectations.

Looking ahead, Siemens said it was pencilling in around 900 million euros in restructuring charges so that its operating profit would come in at around 4.5 billion euros, the bottom of its forecast range of 4.5-5.0 billion euros.
Full-year revenues were projected to decline, but orders would rise "moderately," Siemens said.
It had aimed to achieve a profit margin of at least 12 percent across all of its business sectors by fiscal 2014 but said today that difficult market conditions nixed that target.