Research Update: Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp. Outlook Revised To Stable From Negative On Strong Operating Performance

Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.'s (Wabtec) operating performance recovery was strong, particularly within its transit and international freight businesses, while North American freight has shown sequential improvement. As a result, Wabtec's S&P Global Ratings'-adjusted leverage has declined to 3.3x, a level that we view has commensurate with our investment-grade rating on the company. Therefore, we revised the outlook to stable and affirmed all ratings on the company, including our 'BBB-' issuer and issue-level credit ratings. The stable outlook reflects our view that Wabtec will continue to achieve strong performance within transit and international freight, while continuing to improve in North American freight in the next year. While we believe Wabtec will continue pursuing modest bolt-on acquisitions and resume share repurchases,

...- Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corp.'s (Wabtec) operating performance recovery was strong, particularly within its transit and international freight businesses, while North American freight has shown sequential improvement. - As a result, Wabtec's S&P Global Ratings'-adjusted leverage has declined to 3.3x, a level that we view has commensurate with our investment-grade rating on the company. - Therefore, we revised the outlook to stable and affirmed all ratings on the company, including our '###-' issuer and issue-level credit ratings. - The stable outlook reflects our view that Wabtec will continue to achieve strong performance within transit and international freight, while continuing to improve in North American freight in the next year. While we believe Wabtec will continue pursuing modest bolt-on acquisitions and resume share repurchases, we expect the company will continue reducing debt leverage to the mid-2x to 3x range as operating performance rebounds....

Research Update