Wabtec (WAB) Shares Skyrocket, What You Need To Know

What Happened?

Shares of rail equipment company Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (NYSE:WAB) jumped 9.8% in the morning session after the company reported impressive first quarter 2025 results: EPS beat handily on better profitability and Wabtec raised its full-year EPS guidance. Management highlighted the strength of its international business and added that the company was "...approaching the remainder of the year with caution but with the discipline and focus to take the necessary actions to deliver against our commitments in an uncertain and volatile economic landscape." 

The market was willing to overlook a slight revenue miss due to continued growth in Wabtec's backlog amidst much macro unevenness and uncertainty. 

Overall, this quarter was a strong quarter to put many fears about the macro and the demand environment to rest.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Wabtec’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 6 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 2 months ago when the stock dropped 11.1% on the news that the company delivered a weaker-than-expected quarter, with both revenue and EPS missing estimates and guidance for both metrics coming in below Wall Street's expectations. Growth was weighed down by the Freight segment, where sales were nearly flat​. The Transit segment, however, grew 7.1%, helping lift overall revenue by 2.3%​. Wabtec also introduced a new five-year forecast, targeting mid-single-digit annual revenue growth and 3.5 percentage points of adjusted operating margin expansion​. The stock's reaction suggests investors were looking for stronger guidance.

Wabtec is down 2.6% since the beginning of the year, and at $184.14 per share, it is trading 12.3% below its 52-week high of $209.86 from January 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Wabtec’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $3,540.

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