Good afternoon. Welcome to the Wabtec 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the conference over to Albert J. Neupaver. Please go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Wabtec's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. My name is Albert J. Neupaver, Chairman of the Board of Wabtec Corporation, and I will be serving as chairman for this meeting. It is my pleasure to call this meeting to order. Following the conclusion of formal business of the meeting, I, along with management, will address additional questions from our stockholders. I also encourage stockholders to contact our investor relations department to ask questions at any time. The question portal is now open and will remain open until the conclusion of Rafael Santana's remarks. You may submit a question by typing it into Ask the Question field and clicking Submit. Joining us today are all the members of our board of directors. Also with us today, representing Wabtec's independent registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young, is Vaughn Cook.
The board of directors has appointed a representative of The Carideo Group to act as the inspector of elections at this meeting. The representative is Tony Carideo, who is in the virtual meeting and has signed the oath of office. The secretary will file the oath of office with the records of this meeting. I will now begin the formal business portion of the meeting. Dave DeNinno, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of the Company, will serve as Secretary of this Meeting. Dave DeNinno will now report with regard to the call and the giving of notice of this Meeting.
Thank you, Al. This annual meeting was called by the board of directors at its regular meeting held on February sixth, 2026. The board fixed March 16th, 2026 as the record date for the holders of the company's common stock entitled to receive notice of and to vote at this meeting. The notice of Internet availability of proxy materials was mailed, and the proxy materials, including the proxy statement for this meeting and Wabtec's 2025 annual report, were first given via Internet access on or about March 31, 2026 to all holders of the company's common stock as of the close of business on the record date. I have an affidavit of the company's transfer agent with regard to this mailing and Internet access.
Accordingly, it is my pleasure to report that this annual meeting was duly called and that notice of this annual meeting was properly given to the company's stockholders. The company's stock transfer agent has prepared a complete list of the registered holders of record of the company's common stock entitled to vote at this meeting. The list includes the names and addresses of the stockholders arranged in alphabetical order and the number of shares held. This list is available in the virtual meeting portal and may be inspected by any stockholder throughout this meeting.
The secretary will file the list of stockholders entitled to vote with the records of this meeting. A quorum to conduct business at this meeting consists of a majority of the issued and outstanding shares entitled to vote at this meeting. I am pleased to declare that our inspector of elections has determined a quorum is present for all matters to be voted on at today's annual meeting and polls are open. We may proceed with conducting the business of this meeting. We will proceed with the voting on the matters described in the proxy statement to be acted upon at this meeting. The secretary will now report on the matters to be considered.
The matters to be considered are: Proposal 1, the election of 3 persons to serve as directors for a term of three years. Proposal 2, the approval of an advisory resolution relating to 2025 named executive officer compensation. Proposal 3, the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent public accountants to audit the financial statements of the company for the 2026 fiscal year.
We will now proceed to voting. Any stockholder who has not yet voted or who wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the provided instructions. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. I now declare the polls are closed. While the votes are being tabulated, I would like to introduce our President and Chief Executive Officer, Rafael Santana, to provide an update on the state of Wabtec's business. Rafael will make forward-looking statements during his remarks about our markets and our future earnings expectations. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations due to many factors which are discussed in our SEC filings.
Thank you, Albert. We appreciate all of you joining us for this year's meeting. Before I get into my business remarks, I'd like to take a moment to recognize Albert J. Neupaver. As Albert steps down from the boards following this annual meeting, I want to offer on behalf of our employees, board, and shareholders our deepest appreciation. Albert's leadership and unwavering commitments have been instrumental in transforming us into the company we are today. His impact is woven into our culture, our strategy, and our future. We are not just grateful, we are inspired by the legacy he leaves. Albert, thank you for guiding us, challenging us, and believing in the possibilities that have become our reality. Turning to our business, 2025 was another outstanding year for Wabtec. One that clearly demonstrates the strength and the resilience of the portfolio and the disciplined execution of our team.
Over the course of the year, we made meaningful progress advancing our long-term strategy and strengthening the foundation for continued success. We delivered $11.2 billion in sales, $8.97 in adjusted earnings per share, and cash flow from operations of $1.8 billion while expanding margins and building a record backlog. More importantly, these results highlight our ability to consistently compound long-term value even in a dynamic and uncertain economic environment. Looking ahead, we remain confident in the fundamentals of the company and in our ability to deliver sustained long-term shareholder value. Our consistent performance is driven by a clearly defined value creation framework. This framework is built on the strength of our resilient install base, the commitment of our exceptional global teams, and our focus on the innovative technologies that are purpose-built to solve our customers' evolving challenges.
As we move forward, we will continue to leverage the growth that we expect across both our freight and transit segments while advancing transformative technologies and digital solutions that position Wabtec as a leading industrial technology company for the future. A key part of this journey is the continued development of a differentiated digital platform, an industrial and rail-anchored intelligence layer, and enabled by our unparalleled install base. Innovation remains central to our strategy. We are investing in emerging technologies and data-driven mission-critical software that improve efficiency, safety, and reliability for our customers. By embedding intelligence across our product portfolio, we are unlocking the value of our installed base, which will further deepen long-term customer relationships and capture high-margin, recurring digital and aftermarket revenue streams. A key driver of our success is our disciplined M&A model, which is designed to deliver sustained profitable growth.
Our targeted acquisitions have enhanced our technology portfolio, expanded high-margin recurring revenue, and reduced exposure to economic and industry cycles. These investments are strategic, value creative, and supported by a repeatable integration model that enable us to realize synergies and strong returns. Finally, we remain committed to driving operational excellence and continuous improvement across all our businesses, driving productivity, margin expansion, and strong cash flow that allows us to reinvest in the business and return capital to shareholders. Our goal is to continue building an exceptional enterprise, one that evolves continuously, executes with discipline, and compounds value over time. We strive to remain a trusted partner to all of our stakeholders, including customers, employees, communities, and shareholders. I am confident that our commitment to innovation, continuous improvement, and value creation will position Wabtec to deliver on that promise
Thank you for your time today. I'll now turn the program back over to Albert.
Thank you, Rafael. As Rafael mentioned, this will be my final annual meeting as Chairman of Wabtec. It has truly been an honor to serve this company, our shareholders, and to work alongside an exceptional board and management team. Over the years, Wabtec has transformed into a stronger, more resilient, and more innovative company, and that progress is entirely a credit to the people of Wabtec. I have great confidence in the leadership team, the board, and in Wabtec's strategy. The company is well-positioned for the future, and I'm excited to see what lies ahead. Thank you for your trust and support over the years. It has been a privilege to serve as Chairman. We will now return to the formal order of business. Mr. DeNinno will now report on the results of the voting.
We have been informed by the Inspector of Elections that the preliminary vote report shows the election of each of Rafael Santana, Lee C. Banks, and Byron S. Foster to serve as directors for a term of three years. The approval of the advisory resolution on the 2025 named executive compensation and the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent public accountants to audit the financial statements of the company for the 2026 fiscal year. We will be reporting the final vote results in a Form 8-K to be filed within four business days.
The Secretary is directed to file the report of the Inspector of Elections with the records of this meeting. This concludes the annual meeting, and I now declare this annual meeting adjourned. We will now take questions from the online portal that have been submitted by our stockholders and which are pertinent to this meeting. Questions from multiple stockholders on the same topic or that are otherwise related may be grouped, summarized, and answered together.
We will now begin the question and answer portion of today's meeting. Question one will be for CFO John Olin. Has the conflict in the Middle East had any material effect on our company?
Thanks, Kyra. Kyra, as well, we have a very small footprint in the Middle East with regards to manufacturing and on our overall supply base. There is no material effect on the company at this time from the conflict in the Middle East.
Great. Thank you. Since the next question is financial in nature, John, I'll give this back to you. Is there any way to turn the $27 billion backlog into current income?
Kyra, actually, at the end of the first quarter, the backlog topped $30 billion, it went up about $3 billion in the first quarter. We're very proud of the growth that we've had in the backlog over the last 12 months. Matter of fact, the overall backlog is up 38%. With regards to turning that into current income, that's gonna come over time. Right, we're talking about a multi-year backlog and that backlog can be over several years. Those are contractual obligations that we have to ship at that timing, so that will be recognized over a period of time. We've also got a very strong 12 month backlog, which is about $8.2 billion, and we would expect that to turn into current income over the next 12 months.
Great. Thank you, John. The next question will be for CEO Rafael Santana. Wabtec has been a remarkable part of the railroading history. Building locomotives was a huge new step. What has been the most exciting thing for you about your progress there, and what challenges are you managing?
Kyra, I think the most exciting thing has been the continuation of really the advancements around technology, automation that continues to make a lot of the fleets that our customers operate in their businesses much safer, making the fleet more available and more reliable. I think that's something we're really proud of. On the challenges, it's less about one specific challenges, just the amount of challenges, and that's something that I think this team have been trained very well over the years, is to really make sure that we're anticipating and managing challenges as they come, and we continue to deliver to our stakeholders.
Great. Thank you, Rafael. That now concludes our question and answer session. I'll now turn the meeting back to Albert J. Neupaver for some closing remarks.
Thank you very much for your time today. This concludes Wabtec's 2026 Annual Meeting. We appreciate your participation and wish you continued good health and safety.
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.