Wabtec Corporation has reported ‘record quarterly sales and earnings’, and increased its full-year guidance.
The company also declared a regular quarterly dividend of 3 cents per share, payable on Nov. 30, 2011 to holders of record on Nov. 16, 2011.
Third quarter highlights included:
- Sales were a record $499 million, 33 percent higher than the year-ago quarter, primarily due to strong growth in the Freight Group.
- Earnings per diluted share were a record 96 cents, 52% higher than the year-ago quarter.
- Income from operations was a record $75 million, or 15.1 percent of sales, compared to 13.5 percent in the year-ago quarter.
- Cash from operations was $34 million for the quarter and $100 million for the first nine months of the year. At Sept. 30, 2011, the company had cash of $221 million and debt of $406 million. During the quarter, Wabtec repurchased 308,600 shares of company stock for $18 million.
- Backlog at the end of the third quarter was $1.5 billion, 38% higher than at the beginning of the year.
Albert J. Neupaver, Wabtec’s president and chief executive officer, said:
“Wabtec continued to perform at a high level in the third quarter and we expect to finish the year strongly.
“We are executing our growth strategies well, benefiting from favorable market conditions in the freight rail sector, and beginning to see a ramp-up in positive train control activities.
“We remain optimistic about our outlook for the balance of the year, and believe we are well positioned over the longer term to take advantage of growth opportunities in our core markets around the world.”
