ZURICH (Reuters) - Siemens reported a drop in second quarter earnings at its industrial business, the German engineering group said on Thursday, after suffering a slowdown at its flagship factory automation division.

The trains to industrial software maker said industrial profit fell 2% to 2.51 billion euros ($2.73 billion) during the three months to the end of March. The figure missed analyst forecasts for 2.68 billion euros in a company gathered consensus of analysts.

Sales fell 1% to 19.16 billion euros, below the 19.28 billion euros expected, while net profit fell to 2.19 billion euros.

Digital Industries - the company's factory software and automation division - struggled with lower orders, sales and profit, during the period, the company said.

In contrast, Siemens's buildings and transport division both posted increases in revenues during the quarter.

"Siemens proved its resilience with strong revenue performance in Smart Infrastructure, Mobility and industrial software; this nearly offset currently muted demand in Digital Industries' automation business," said Chief Executive Roland Busch in a statement.

($1 = 0.9188 euros)