Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (WAB) CEO Rafael Santana on Q1 2022 Results - Earnings Call Transcript

Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation (NYSE:WAB) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 27, 2022 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Kristine Kubacki - VP of IR

Rafael Santana - President and CEO

John Olin - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Justin Long - Stephens

Jerry Revich - Goldman Sachs

Ivan Yi - Wolfe Research

Courtney Yakavonis - Morgan Stanley

Eli Winski - Citi

Rob Wertheimer - Melius Research

Allison Poliniak - Wells Fargo

Matt Elkott - Cowen

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Wabtec First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Kristine Kubacki, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Kristine Kubacki

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone and welcome to Wabtec's first quarter 2022 earnings call. With us today are President and CEO, Rafael Santana; CFO, John Olin; and Senior Vice President of Finance, John Mastalerz. Today's slide presentation, along with our earnings release and financial disclosures were posted on our website earlier today and can be accessed on the Investor Relations tab on wabteccorp.com.

Some statements we're making are forward-looking and based on our best view of the world and our business today. For more detailed risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our forward-looking statements please see the disclosures in our earnings release and presentation. We will also discuss non-GAAP financial metrics and encourage you to read our disclosures and reconciliation tables carefully as you consider these metrics.

With that, I’ll turn the call over to Rafael.

Rafael Santana

Thanks, Kristine, and good morning, everyone.

Let's move to Slide 4, and I’ll start with an up on our business, my perspectives on the quarter and progress on our long-term value framework. John will then cover the financials. Overall, we achieved significant progress against our long-term strategies that we detailed at our Investor Day in March. We delivered a strong first quarter as shown by the 5% sales growth, adjusted operating margin expansion of 1.4 percentage points and adjusted earnings per share growth of 27%. Total cash flow from operations was $161 million.

Finally, we ended the quarter with about $23 billion of multiyear backlog, which was up $1.1 billion from last year. Overall, our team overcame a volatile and disruptive environment and delivered a strong first quarter, despite challenges across the supply chain, higher costs and the impact from the conflict in Ukraine. We are monitoring the devastating situation in Ukraine. Our hearts go out to the people there, their resilience and courage are truly inspirational.