R&D Spending Forecasts Continue to Grow for 2015

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. - June 13, 2014 - PRLog -- According to a newly released study, R&D Ratios & Budgets, now in its 38^th annual edition, from Schonfeld & Associates, Inc., research and development spending in 2015 continues to grow within most industries. Spending by U.S. headquartered firms will grow by 5.6% while non-U.S. headquartered firms will grow their R&D budgets by 2.7%. R&D intensity, as expressed by the R&D-to-sales ratio, is 4.2 for U.S. headquartered firms versus 2.8 for non-U.S. headquartered companies.

The pharmaceutical industry continues to be the biggest R&D investor with drug companies increasing their budgets slightly to spend over $92 billion. Automotive companies will add $654 billion to this investment pool, an increase of 4%.

Software companies are projected to increase R&D spending by 7.3% and to see sales increase over 7%. Of the major software companies,Microsoft leads with a budget of $11.8 billion, an increase of 5.3%.  Oracle and SAP are both also investing over $3 billion in 2015. Google, joined by Amazon, Ebay and Facebook, whose software is not available for purchase, all plan to invest over $2 billion in 2015. These findings were foreshadowed by last year's edition of R&D Ratios & Budgets.

The biggest single R&D investor in 2015 will be Volkswagen at over $17 billion, followed by Microsoftat over $11 billion.

Pharmaceutical firms will continue significant R&D spending in 2015. Roche, the top spender at $11.8 billion is followed by Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, and Eli Lilly, each projected to spend over $5 billion. Much of this investment is spurred by new discoveries and attempts to protect expiring patents. The biotech industry is growing R&D by 11.7% to just over $14 billion. Electromedical apparatus makers, led by Medtronic, will be spending over $5.3 billion, a boost of 2.9 percent.

R&D budgets of semiconductor makers will grow to $50 billion, an increase of 8.2%. Intel will have the largest R&D budget, $13.6 billion, up over 13 percent. R&D budgets of the industries that are major suppliers to the infrastructure of the Internet cloud, such as Electronic Computers and Computer Communications Equipment as well as other related industries, such as Computer Storage Devices are also expected to increase R&D spending. Telecommunications companies worldwide will invest close to $20 billion, a slight increase.

The automotive industry has rebounded with sales to rise over 5 percent and is increasing its total R&D spending by 4% to over $65 billion with all major players increasing spending except for Nissan and Toyota.

These predictions come from the 38th annual edition of R&D Ratios & Budgets by Schonfeld & Associates.  The study contains historical R&D spending for 2013, an estimate of R&D budgets for 2014, and a forecast of 2015 R&D spending for over 4,000 firms.

R&D Ratios & Budgets is used for budget planning, monitoring competition, identifying joint venture partners, and spotting acquisition candidates. Regular buyers include: IBM, HP, GM, Boeing, Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, libraries, government agencies and others.

The study shows each firm's R&D-to-gross profits ratio, R&D-to-sales ratio also referred to as R&D intensity, plus R&D and sales growth rates. In addition, for each company and industry, the study contains a low and high range for each ratio over the last six years to indicate stability of R&D spending.  It also contains over 280 industry summaries.

Forecasts and data from R&D Ratios & Budgets are also available for all companies and industries in Excel format. Additional information is provided within the datafiles to allow for analysis by corporate location or NAICS code. The 2014 edition of the report is $ 395 and the report along with Excel datafiles is $ 495. Contact Schonfeld & Associates, Inc., 1931 Lynn Circle, Libertyville, Illinois60048. Call for more information: 800-205-0030 or visit the company’s web site at http://www.saiBooks.com.