The company, which primarily serves the global freight rail and passenger transit market, has benefited from increased industrial freight demand as supply-chain snags ease.
Wabtec, which operates in over 50 countries, said its earnings for the quarter ended March 31 were $1.28 per share, beating Wall Street expectations of $1.19 per share.
"The underlying business fundamentals strengthened in the first quarter despite a challenging environment," said President and CEO Rafael Santana.
Sales in the company's freight segment, which makes new locomotives and provides aftermarket parts and services, rose 18.5% to $1.57 billion.
Wabtec also reaffirmed its sales and profit outlook for 2023; it had earlier forecast its annual sales to be in the range of $8.7 billion to $9.0 billion, and adjusted earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $5.15 to $5.55.
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company said quarterly sales rose 13.9% to $2.19 billion, above analysts' estimates of $2.12 billion.
(Reporting by Amna Karimi and Shivansh Tiwary in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
