Wesco International lifts 2026 outlook again as third-quarter profit beats forecasts

Quarterly sales rose 17 per cent to $7.23 billion, and backlog is up about 80 per cent from a year earlier.

Wesco International reported third-quarter sales of $7.23 billion, up 17 per cent from a year earlier and up 8 per cent from the second quarter. Adjusted diluted earnings per share were $5.77, up 47 per cent and $1.05 above expectations. Sales also beat the $6.93 billion analysts had expected.

Sales to data centers were $1.8 billion, up about 55 per cent. Sales to the company's other customers rose 7 per cent. Wesco said sales excluding data centers grew in the high single digits. It was the fifth straight quarter of double-digit sales growth.

Backlog, the value of orders not yet turned into sales, reached a record. Wesco said it was up about 80 per cent from a year earlier. Its second-quarter release had put the growth at about 60 per cent.

Adjusted EBITDA margin, a measure of operating profit before certain costs, was 7.8 per cent, up 100 basis points, or one percentage point. Operating margin was 6.2 per cent, up 60 basis points. Free cash flow was $184 million. Financial leverage, a measure of debt against earnings, fell to 2.8 times from 3.4 times at the end of 2025.

Wesco raised its full-year 2026 outlook again. Chairman, President and CEO John Engel credited record backlog growth, driven by multi-year customer commitments across the company's major end markets. The company holds its earnings call at 10 a.m. Eastern today.

The second-quarter release on July 30 had already raised guidance and tied sales growth to data centers. This release points to multi-year commitments across all major end markets, a wider base than data centers alone. The open question is whether that backlog becomes sales on the schedule the higher guidance assumes. If it does, repeated raises would point to sustained volume rather than timing.