Wabtec lifts 2023 forecast on strong demand in freight and transit businesses
July 27 (Reuters) - Heavy industrial parts maker Wabtec Corporation on Thursday raised its full-year sales and earnings outlook on continued growth in its freight and transit segments.
The company, which makes and services locomotives for global freight and passenger transit market, has benefited from increased freight demand as supply-chain bottlenecks ease.
Wabtec's transit segment also showed strong recovery with a 25.3% increase in quarterly sales on high aftermarket sales.
Shares of the company were up 1.6% in low volumes in premarket trading.
Wabtec now expects its adjusted profit for 2023 to be in the range of $5.50 to $5.80, up from its previous forecast of $5.15 to $5.55. It now sees annual sales between $9.25 billion and $9.50 billion, up from $8.7 billion to $9.0 billion.
"Our orders pipeline is expected to strengthen as we look out to the second half of 2023 and beyond, CEO Rafael Santana said.
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company said its earnings for the quarter ended June 30 was $1.41 per share, beating Wall Street estimates of $1.33 per share.
Net sales rose 17.5% to $2.41 billion, above analysts' average estimates of $2.28 billion. (Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
