Philips, the lighting, consumer and healthcare products company, said today its comparable sales rose 2% to €5.3 billion in the first quarter.
The company said its operational result, or adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation, rose to €327m in the three month period from €304m the same time a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Reuters had put the EBITA figure at €324m.
Philips' CEO Frans van Houten said he was "encouraged" by the company's return to sales growth in the first quarter after a fall in the fourth quarter of 2014.
The company is now forecasting a "modest" increase in comparable sales for the full year 2015.
It said it is still running about 1% behind its medium-term target of reaching an operating margin of at least 11% of sales in 2016, as stated in a January warning.
At Philips' healthcare division, which suffered from a lengthy production shutdown in the US in 2014, the company said that order intake and sales grew.
However, operating profit was just €17m compared to €109m the same time in 2014.
