Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation WAB, commonly known as Wabtec, reported fourth-quarter 2024 earnings per share (excluding 45 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.68, which fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.73. The bottom line improved 9.1% year over year due to higher sales and operating margin expansion.

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Revenues of $2.58 billion fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.59 billion. The top line grew 2.3% year over year due to higher sales in the Transit segment.

Apart from the lower-than-expected results, the below-par earnings per share view for 2025 disappointed investors, resulting in WAB’s shares losing value in pre-market trading. WAB expects 2025 adjusted earnings per share to be in a range of $8.35-$8.75. The mid-point of the guided range (i.e. 8.55) is below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $8.59 per share.

WAB’s Segmental Highlights

Freight net sales of $1.79 billion increased 0.3% year over year. The marginal increase was due to the rebalance of Freight segment production to the first half of the year. The actual segmental sales figure was below our expectations of $1.84 billion. Freight segment’s adjusted operating margin improved marginally year over year to 19.4%.

In the Transit segment, net sales grew 7.1% year over year to $789 million, due to strong aftermarket and original equipment sales. The actual segmental sales figure was higher than our estimation of $757 million. The segmental adjusted operating margin increased to 16.4% from 14.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023, aided by higher sales, savings related to Integration 2.0 and favorable product mix.

Other Q4 Details for WAB 

Total operating expenses in the reported quarter increased $7 million from a year-ago to $463 million. Operating ratio (operating expenses as a % of net sales) improved to 17.9% from 18.1% a year ago. A lower value of the metric is desirable.

Wabtec exited the fourth quarter with cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $715 million compared with $620 million at 2023-end. Long-term debt was $3.48 billion compared with $3.29 billion at 2023-end.

During the reported quarter, WAB repurchased shares worth $123 million. The board approved a 25% hike in quarterly cash dividend to 25 cents per share.

Remaining Aspects of WAB’s 2025 Guidance

Wabtec expects revenues in the range of $10.725-$11.025 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is currently pegged at $10.83 billion.

For 2025, management expects operating cash flow conversion to exceed 90%.

WAB’s Zacks Rank

Currently, WAB carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Q4 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

Delta Air Lines DAL reported fourth-quarter 2024 earnings (excluding 56 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.85 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.76. Earnings increased 44.5% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

DAL’s revenues of $15.56 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $14.99 billion and increased 9.4% on a year-over-year basis, driven by strong holiday travel demand. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) totaled $14.44 billion, up 5.7% year over year. Passenger revenues, which accounted for 82.4% of total revenues, increased 5% year over year to $12.82 billion.

J.B. Hunt Transport Services JBHT posted fourth-quarter 2024 earnings per share of $1.53, which fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.62. However, the bottom line increased 4.1% on a year-over-year basis.  

JBHT’s total operating revenues of $3.15 billion narrowly beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.13 billion but declined 4.8% year over year. The decrease was mainly due to lower fuel surcharge revenues and yield pressure in its Intermodal segment.

JBHT’s fourth-quarter 2024 operating revenues of $2.78 billion, excluding fuel surcharge revenues, decreased 2% from the year-ago reported quarter. Total operating income for the reported quarter increased 2% year over year to $207 million.

United Airlines UAL reported solid fourth-quarter 2024 results, with both earnings and revenues surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Quarterly earnings per share (excluding 31 cents from non-recurring items) of $3.26 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.01. The bottom line increased 63% on a year-over-year basis. The reported figure exceeded the company’s guided range of $2.50-$3.

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