Wabtec Q3 Earnings & Revenues Beat Estimates, 2025 EPS View Tweaked

Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (WAB) reported encouraging third-quarter 2025 results wherein both earnings and revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate as well as reported year-over-year growth.

Quarterly earnings per share of $2.32 beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.23 and improved 16% year over year due to higher sales, operating margin expansion and benefits from share repurchases. Revenues of $2.88 billion outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.86 billion. The top line grew 8.4% year over year due to higher sales in the Freight segment (which includes the acquisition of Inspection Technologies) and in the Transit segment.

Rafael Santana, Wabtec’s president and chief executive officer, stated, “The Wabtec team delivered a very strong quarter, evidenced by continued growth in our backlog, sales, margin, and earnings. We continue to be encouraged by the pipeline of opportunities that remains ahead of us. Our team’s commitment to product innovation, disciplined cost management, focused execution and partnership with our customers has been instrumental in driving our ongoing success. Together with our strong results, these factors give us confidence to continue to deliver on profitable growth into the future. Our team’s dedication positions us to drive Wabtec’s success, even in a dynamic and uncertain economic environment.”

WAB’s Segmental Highlights

Freight segment’s net sales of $2.09 billion grew 8.4% year over year. The upside was aided by growth in Equipment sales (up 32% driven by higher locomotive deliveries), Digital sales (up 45.6% owing to the acquisition of Inspection Technologies) and Components sales

Freight segment’s adjusted operating margin grew to 24.5% from 24.1% in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted operating margin benefited from improved gross margin, which was partially offset by higher operating expenses as a percentage of revenue.

In the Transit segment, net sales grew 8.2% year over year to $793 million, due to strong aftermarket and original equipment sales. The segmental adjusted operating margin increased to 15.5% from 12.8% in the third quarter of 2024, aided by improved gross margins, partially offset by higher operating expenses as a percent of revenue.

Other Q3 Details of WAB 

Total operating expenses in the reported quarter increased $64 million from a year ago to $511 million. Operating ratio (operating expenses as a % of net sales) rose to 17.7% from 16.8% a year ago.

Wabtec exited the third quarter with cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $528 million compared with $1.49 billion at the prior quarter-end. Long-term debt was $5.03 billion compared with $4.78 billion at the prior quarter-end.

During the reported quarter, WAB paid $43 million in dividends.

WAB’s 2025 Guidance

Wabtec raised and tightened its 2025 adjusted EPS guidance range to $8.85 to $9.05 from the prior guided range of $8.55 to $9.15.The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $8.90 lies within the guidance.

For revenues, WAB continues to expect its 2025 guidance between $10.925 billion and $11.225 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $11.08 billion lies within the guidance.

For 2025, Wabtec continues to expect operating cash flow conversion to exceed 90%.

Currently, Wabtec carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Q3 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

Delta Air Lines DAL reported third-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 46 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.71 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.52. Earnings increased 14% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

Revenues in the September-end quarter were $16.67 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.79 billion and increasing 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Due to improving air-travel demand, adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) increased 4.1% year over year to $15.2 billion. 

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT) reported third-quarter 2025 earnings of $1.76 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.47 and improved 18.1% year over year.

Total operating revenues of $3.05 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.02 billion and were down 0.5% year over year. JBHT’s third-quarter revenue performance was hurt by a 1% and 4% decline in gross revenue per load in Intermodal (JBI) and Truckload (JBT), respectively, a decrease in load volume of 8% and 1% in Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) and Dedicated Contract Services (DCS), respectively, and 8% fewer stops in Final Mile Services (FMS). These items were partially offset by a 3 % improvement in DCS productivity, a 9% increase in revenue per load in ICS and 14% load growth in JBT. Total operating revenue, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, fell less than 1% year over year.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL) reported mixed third-quarter 2025 results wherein the company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, but revenues missed the same.

UAL's third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) (excluding 12 cents from non-recurring items) of $2.78 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.64 but declined 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. The reported figure lies above the guided range of $2.25 and $2.75.

Operating revenues of $15.2 billion fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.3 billion but increased 2.6% year over year. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 90.7% of the top line) increased 1.9% year over year to $13.8 billion. UAL flights transported 48,382 passengers in the third quarter, up 6.2% year over year.

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