stockholmskf ab on thursday posted a lowerthanexpected net profit amid higher rawmaterial costs but the company raised its dividend and said it expects sales to continue rising in the first quarter the swedish ballbearing maker said its fourthquarter net profit fell to 893 million swedish kronor 863 million from sek171 billion a year earlier as sales rose 21 to sek2536 billion analysts polled by factset had expected net profit of sek13 billion on sales of sek2526 billion skf said its business in china saw a general negative impact from the fast spread of covid19 during december while it continued to implement broadbased price increases which helped to compensate for the sek18 billion of cost inflation during the quarter we expect to see continued volatility and geopolitical uncertainty impacting the markets in which we operate chief executive rickard gustafson said nevertheless looking into the first quarter of 2023 we expect mid singledigit organic sales growth for the full year we expect mid singledigit organic sales growth compared to 2022 skf lifted its dividend to sek700 from sek650 last year