Wabtec raises 2026 EPS guidance on operational strength
Guidance tone
Wabtec reported a strong Q1 with revenue up 13% and adjusted EPS up 19%, beating internal expectations. Management raised full-year EPS guidance on operational strength and non-operational favorability, but revenue guidance is unchanged. Tariffs remain a headwind, particularly in the first half, but mitigation efforts are on track. Backlog reached record levels, supporting visibility into multi-year growth. Q1 revenue $2.95B (+13% YoY), adjusted EPS $2.71 (+19% YoY), both ahead of expectations.
Wabtec reported a strong Q1 with revenue up 13% and adjusted EPS up 19%, beating internal expectations. Management raised full-year EPS guidance on operational strength and non-operational favorability, but revenue guidance is unchanged. Tariffs remain a headwind, particularly in the first half, but mitigation efforts are on track. Backlog reached record levels, supporting visibility into multi-year growth. Q1 revenue $2.95B (+13% YoY), adjusted EPS $2.71 (+19% YoY), both ahead of expectations.
Guidance tone
Q1 revenue $2.95B (+13% YoY), adjusted EPS $2.71 (+19% YoY), both ahead of expectations.
Full-year adjusted EPS guidance raised to $10.25-$10.65 (midpoint up ~$0.20), revenue guidance unchanged.
Tariff costs are a significant first-half headwind but expected to ease in the back half as lapping begins.
Management raised EPS guidance driven by better operational execution and non-operational benefits, while maintaining revenue outlook, indicating confidence in margin expansion and underlying demand despite tariff headwinds.
Management did not specifically discuss capex, but noted continued investment in engineering resources and new product development, particularly in EVO, automation, and digital technologies, to support future growth.
Management expressed strong confidence in execution, backlog visibility, and growth prospects, while acknowledging tariff and inflation headwinds that they are actively mitigating.
“We're seeing copper, aluminum, steel up. We're seeing precious metals up. Silver impacts us as well. Transportation costs are up as well as we're seeing some pressure on memory chips in our digital business.”
| Показатель | Период | Диапазон | Середина | Статус |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | FY2026 | $10.25–$10.65 | $10.45 | RAISED |
Wabtec secured a transit order from Kawasaki, indicating ongoing demand for Wabtec's components in new railcar builds for NYC.
“We signed a $54 million brake and couplers order with Kawasaki for the New York City Transit”
Wabtec is seeing inflation in memory chips for its digital business, which could pressure gross margins in the near term. — Memory chip cost inflation could echo through to other industrial users of embedded computing, signaling a broader input cost headwind.
Great. And if I can get my follow-up on just the outlook. The long-term outlook sounds great still, everything on track and great backlog growth. But the near term, I just want to understand the messaging here. So you've taken the midpoint up about $0.20. I guess you had a huge tax benefit this quarter. You had the below-the-line gain, John, you talked about. So if you add the two together, is that the $0.20 or is there something – going on on the cost side that you're trying to tell us is getting better, and I don't know, tax normalizes itself, and so that's not the guy. I just want to understand maybe more details on that messaging for that outlook.
… it's reflecting two things, and the way to think about it is roughly half of it, call it 10 cents, is due to the operational side of things, and the other 10 cents is due to the non-operational. So let's take a look at both of those, Ken. As we look at the operational, as Rafael had said, we came in slightly favorable to our expectations and we managed an exit of a digital project. So we went back and looked at that and how much of that was structural versus timing and all those types of things. And we're doing a better job, even though our costs are rising quite a bit. We're doing a good job of managing them through all the levers that we commonly pull. And so we took that across the remainder of the year. And then we netted out that against higher costs that we're seeing. And that's largely, Ken, in terms of inflation. And while we do have price escalators, the timing of that and the fact that 40% are not covered by price escalators has our costs rising. And this is largely behind metals. We're seeing copper, aluminum, steel up. We're seeing precious metals up. Silver impacts us as well. Transportation costs are up as well as we're seeing some pressure on memory chips in our digital business. So when we take all of that in aggregate with the structural improvement that we had in the first quarter and that we think will extend to the remainder of the year, that nets out to a $0.10 increase to the overall EPS guidance. The second piece, as you pointed out, Ken, and you're thinking about it exactly the right way, is $0.10 is non-operational. That is driven by two pieces, and one is the currency fluctuations. You know, Ken, we don't know if currencies are going to go up or down from here. But what we've said is that other income, which was up on an adjusted basis, $23 million, is largely going to stick. Now, that could be right or wrong, but that's the way we're thinking about it. In terms of the tax piece, we had favorability in the quarter, but actually it will be a little bit of a headwind for the remainder of the year. as we still expect the 24.5% full-year rate. So, again, very good news. We are holding our revenue forecast. We came in right where we expected to on revenue, and so I think the way to think about this is that we're holding revenue, and it'll be a little bit more profitable as we go forward and as we run the company in a better fashion.